


late night ice cream (with a side of romance?)

by Princess_LoliKat



Series: it's a maknae thing [3]
Category: VIXX
Genre: Cuteness overload, Han Sanghyuk | Hyuk-centric, M/M, Multi, also i'm whipped for vixx, and hyuk is nine times out of ten oblivious to what's happening around him, and that just makes everyone act even more boldly so i guess that's a plus, did i mention there's lots of fluff?, hahaha i'm doing it again, hongbin best friends to lover cliche that everyone needs in their life, jaehwan might actually be the reason i eventually raise the rating from teen and up to mature, ken doesn't know the definition of subtlety, leo tries to be subtle, n is just n in all his mothering glory, oh yeah, ravi actually just wants to protect the child, seriously he's so dense it's painful, there shall be lots of fluff, update: my friend thinks hakyeon will be the cause of the impending rating change lol, yet another maknae x everyone fic because the maknaes need love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-19 02:56:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15500775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princess_LoliKat/pseuds/Princess_LoliKat
Summary: Sanghyuk is a firm believer in late night ice cream and will fight anyone that disagrees.(Or that one fanfic where Sanghyuk has all of his hyungs wrapped around his pinky and he’s the last to catch on.)





	1. lee jaehwan is a thief

**Author's Note:**

> So this here is the third installment in my "it's a maknae thing" series and I thought here I'd try to change some things up a little bit by making this fic into actual chapters instead of my usual long never ending scrolling adventure of text :') Just wanted to try something a little different and it was about time I added Sanghyukie here to the series.~

         Most people would say waking up in the middle of the night to eat ice cream is anything but normal. Sanghyuk would have to agree to disagree considering he’s currently sitting on the kitchen countertop beside the fridge with a bowl of ice cream resting on top of his thigh, a dishrag placed between his leg and the freezing cold bowl as an insulator of sorts. 

         The time on the microwave reads two-fifty-seven in the morning and if this was any other day, Sanghyuk would be asleep in his warm bed just as his hyungs all are. He’d be passed out and dead to the world if it wasn’t for his backwards sleep schedule that he one-hundred percent without a doubt in his mind blames on Hongbin. 

         Okay, maybe it’s not _all_ Hongbin’s fault. He’ll admit that he did willingly agree to staying up late to game with Hongbin a few weeks ago considering the two of them are more or less schedule free. But then Hongbin began staying online longer than normal for the following couple of nights, dragging on the Overwatch matches so that instead of ending eight games in, they wouldn’t stop till they had at least reached their thirteenth game. And Sanghyuk was all for it. Getting to play as much Overwatch as he wanted with his hyung that’s usually so picky about who he let’s play with him- who wouldn’t jump at the chance to play with Hongbin?

         But that’s exactly why he’s here eating ice cream, alone, by himself in the kitchen on the cold countertop with nothing but the half eaten bowl of ice cream to keep him company. Hongbin went and decided to go to sleep at a decent time a few nights ago and, almost like magic, his sleep schedule had returned to normal. Just like that. Honestly, Hongbin isn’t human if you ask Sanghyuk because no one should be able to fix their sleep schedule in just a single night unless your name is Lee Hongbin and you learn to bend the natural order of the entirety of humanity. 

         Now Sanghyuk is awake at ungodly hours of the night, left to fend for himself since it’s too late to ask anyone to cook for him or for himself to risk burning down the kitchen trying to cook without adult supervision. Probably why the only thing he trusts even himself with “ _making_ ” is this here bowl of ice cream. No one needs to know that he flung a full scoop right out of the tub either.  _Shhhh_ , that's for him to know and for the rest of the world to never find out.

         The sound of a door opening further within the apartment just barely catches the young idols attention. Though, figuring it’s probably Wonshik going to the bathroom again, he pays it no mind and continues eating his slowly melting ice cream. Needless to say the poor boy nearly has a heart attack when Jaehwan, all sleepy eyed and dressed in just an oversized shirt and his boxers, comes walking into the kitchen. 

         Jaehwan seems not nearly as shocked as Sanghyuk is and just offers the younger a fatigued smile as if being awake at three in the morning and finding your maknae eating a bowl of ice cream alone in the kitchen is completely normal. “What are you doing awake Sanghyukie? Couldn’t sleep?”

         “Nope. I won’t be going to sleep till around five probably.” Sanghyuk responds with a small laugh. “How bout you, why are you awake- and is that _my_ shirt?”

         The older lifts the collar of the shirt some as he looks down. “I think so? Probably is considering I was sleeping in your bed.”

         Sanghyuk shakes his head some as he stares incredulously at his hyung. “What why? You have the best blanket in the entire dorm and a room all to yourself and yet you’re sleeping in my room that’s shared with Wonshik? Are you alright in the head?”

         Jaehwan laughs at that, making his way over to sit beside the younger on the countertop, their thighs pressed pressed together in seconds. Sanghyuk doesn’t bother shifting over any considering he’s learned over the years that a cuddly and tired Jaehwan only gets worse if you try to get away. Then again, having Jaehwan close to him isn’t all that bad anyways so he doesn’t mind his hyung being clingy when he's just woken up. 

         “Can I have some?” The older asks. Sanghyuk doesn’t even have a chance to respond before Jaehwan is grabbing his hand and maneuvering the spoon to his mouth, successfully stealing the maknae’s ice cream just like that. 

         Sanghyuk rolls his eyes. “Sure hyung, you can have some.” He says before relinquishing full custody of the spoon over to Jaehwan.

         Smiling tiredly up at the maknae, barely able to keep his eyes open, Jaehwan goes ahead and continues eating the ice cream Sanghyuk had been craving for all night. Sighing, the younger let’s Jaehwan lean into his side as he eats, not having it within himself to fight his tired hyung on not only stealing his beloved ice cream but his shirt and bed as well. Tonight is just one of those nights he supposes. Wouldn’t be the first time one of his hyungs have done something weird in the middle of the night (just last week Hakyeon had fallen asleep on the couch and the second Sanghyuk came home from hanging out with Sungjae, he pulled him down onto the couch and would not let him get up for the rest of the night, Sanghyuk being forced into cuddling with Hakyeon until the early hours of the morning).

         Yeah, his hyungs are weird… 

         “Sanghyukie,” Jaehwan says his name around a mouthful of ice cream as well as the metal spoon, “can I keep wearing your shirts?”

         It takes the younger a moment to understand the muffled words before he’s internally sighing because this is a losing battle. He could tell Jaehwan no, but that’s wrong for two reasons. Reason one being that this is his hyung and it’s not like they don’t share clothes every once in a while anyways so it’s not that big of a deal and reason two, even if he said no Jaehwan would still grab his shirts so really, he doesn’t have a say in this either.  At least he’s realistic about the situation.

         Sanghyuk shrugs. “I don’t mind. Just be sure to put some back every now and again so I don’t run out of shirts.”

         “You could just wear some of mine.”

         The younger looks at the other man with a bored expression because really, Sanghyuk doubts he'd fit into even half the clothes Jaehwan owns with the exception of the truly oversized shirts he's somehow came into possession of over the years. “Hyung, you’re too tired for this. Maybe you should go back to sleep.”

         Jaehwan frowns some, stuffing another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. “What, you don’t want to share clothes with me?”

         “No what? I like my shirts that’s all hyung. C’mon, you’re being weird because you're tired, you should really head on back to bed.” Sanghyuk says with a small smile, trying his best to not annoy Jaehwan considering the older is easily annoyed when he’s tired… 

         “You should come to bed too. It’s late.” Jaehwan says, grabbing the now finished bowl of ice cream and then promptly placing it in the sink on the other side of himself. 

         Sanghyuk watches curiously as his hyung hops off the countertop and makes a grab for his hand. As always when dealing with Jaehwan at some ungodly hour, Sanghyuk has no choice but to let the older interlace their fingers and pull him off the countertop as well, the two of them eventually heading back to Wonshik and Sanghyuk’s shared room where said rapper is still sleeping like a log. 

         Jaehwan closes the door softly behind the two of them, the room being bathed in nothing but darkness. If it wasn’t for the fact Jaehwan is being led by the younger through the dark room, their fingers still interlaced, Sanghyuk is sure he would have tripped over one of the numerous pieces of clothes littering the floor that he himself has memorized for nights such as these. 

         A few minutes pass by and eventually Sanghyuk finds himself lying in his bed with Jaehwan lying down beside him, the older pressed as close to him as humanly possible with his head placed just under Sanghyuk’s chin. “Goodnight Sanghyukie.” Jaehwan murmurs with a yawn, instantly falling back asleep as if he isn’t stealing over half of the maknae’s bed right now and forcing the younger to be squished between himself and the wall. 

         “Yeah, goodnight hyung.” Sanghyuk responds, not really that tired yet but, oh well. 

         And it's only just now that Sanghyuk remembers that Jaehwan and himself left the kitchen light on… Hakyeon is going to kill them in the morning for sure. That man absolutely _hates_ when one of the members leaves on a light that isn’t needed and Sanghyuk gets it to a point. Wasting energy and raising their electricity bill isn’t exactly the most ideal thing, but Hakyeon will actually end their existences come morning. 

         At least Sanghyuk gets to spend his last night alive in relative peace as Jaehwan fists his shirt and manages to press himself even closer, looking as though this is where he belongs. In the maknae’s bed, wearing the maknae’s shirt, and grabbing both of the maknae’s arms to wrap around his slightly smaller frame. 

         … 

         Sanghyuk just wanted to live an easy life and he is ninety-nine point eighty-six percent sure that being forced to cuddle with his hyung who insists on stealing his clothes and bed and ice cream was not stipulated within the confines of his contract he signed all those years ago.


	2. the typical morning within vixx's apartment

        The next morning, Sanghyuk is less than surprised to wake up to Hakyeon’s yelling for whoever left the kitchen light on all night to “wake up right this instant.”

        See, he called it. Hakyeon is going to kill him all because Jaehwan dragged him out of the kitchen before he could turn off the lights last night.

        Being a maknae in this day and age is hard…

        As he slowly shifts around, trying to detangle himself from Jaehwan’s octopus arms, Sanghyuk finds his neck and back to be sore from sleeping in such an awkward position. Jaehwan really needs to learn how to sleep in the same bed with someone and not cause them physical harm. This is exactly why he, out of the six of them, was the first to get his own bed. If it wasn’t the person sleeping there getting kicked off the bed that they shared with Jaehwan, they were most definitely waking up with a crook in their neck and pains in their joints. Sanghyuk is no exception to this.

        “Sanghyukie…” Jaehwan mumbles his name tiredly, not even bothering to open his eyes as his arms tighten around the youngest. “Don’t go yet, five more minutes.” He slurs.

        More voices are coming from the kitchen now. Sanghyuk can just barely make out Taekwoon's and Hongbin’s voices mixed in with Hakyeon’s more aggravated tone and- oh, he’s so dead. Hongbin _knows_ who eats ice cream at ungodly hours because he’s caught him doing it at least three times now (don’t judge Sanghyuk’s nightly ice cream eating ritual). But, with that being said, Hongbin is going to out him because no one can lie to Hakyeon and then the oldest member is going to come on some war path to finally end his maknae’s sad existence once and for all.

        Welp, guess Sanghyuk lost that bet to Sungjae. And here he was so sure one of the BTOB members would kill his best friend before his own members managed to get to himself… Guess he has to be wrong about something sometime.

        “Han Sanghyuk! Why would you leave the kitchen light on?!” Hakyeon’s yell echoes and bounces around the dorm and yet neither Wonshik nor Jaehwan stir even the slightest bit at Sanghyuk’s impending doom. They don’t even wake up when Hakyeon flings the bedroom door wide open and stalks inside like some predator about to pounce on its prey.

        An angry Hakyeon is truly a scary Hakyeon. Though, luckily for himself, Sanghyuk is the maknae and the maknae of any band has a very special power no one else possesses; the ability to escape any and all harm if he acts cute and or helpless.

        Don’t ask him why this works, it just does. It’s a simple fact of life. Maknae’s get away with the most amazing things and no one can deny it. Just ask Yugyeom or Junhong or even Jungkook, their bands let them off the hook _all_ the time and Sanghyuk would be an idiot not to take advantage of his maknae card.

        Pretending to be far more tired than what he actually is, Sanghyuk rubs at his eyes and makes a lame attempt to sit up some only for Jaehwan to pull him right back down. “Hyung…” The youngest whines some, looking to Hakyeon pleadingly for some sort of help.

        There’s a moment of stillness that passes as Hakyeon just looks at the scene before him, still clearly annoyed only for the murderous glint in his eyes to disappear and his entire façade dropping just like that. Sighing, Hakyeon’s shoulders ease up and lose their tension. “Sanghyuk, why is Jaehwan in your bed?”

        The maknae pouts some. He might as well lay it on extra thick to ensure his safety by making Hakyeon truly pity him. Some people may call this manipulation, Sanghyuk likes to call it tactical persuasion.

        “Jaehwan was already sleeping in my bed last night when he woke up and came into the kitchen. He ate my ice cream, dragged me back to my bed that he’s stolen from me, all while wearing my shirt.” Sanghyuk says, Jaehwan cracking just the smallest smile that only the younger can see. Guess he’s been awake this entire time and just wants to make the maknae suffer. How evil. “I didn’t have a chance to turn off the light last night hyung. I’m sorry.”

        Hakyeon looks as though he’s having some sort of internal struggle with himself before the older is sighing once more. “Don’t apologize, it’s not like you could have stopped Jaehwan anyways.” The older says defeated. “I’ll ask Taekwoon to start some breakfast and I'll wake the two of you when it’s done. Now go back to sleep Hyogie, you probably didn’t get much last night with the way you’ve been staying up lately.”

        Smiling up at Hakyeon, Sanghyuk happily allows for Jaehwan to snuggle closer and bury his head into his chest. “Thanks hyung, you’re the best.”

        Waving the younger off, Hakyeon begins making his way back out of the bedroom. “Yeah yeah, just get some rest.”

        And with that, the older slips out of the room and closes the door softly behind him as if Wonshik and Jaehwan aren’t already awake.

        Sanghyuk lets out a small sigh of relief. “Jaehwan-hyung, you nearly got me killed.” He says, lying back down flat on his back while the older easily shifts to using his chest as a makeshift pillow.

        Smiling quite smugly, Jaehwan looks to Sanghyuk and laughs softly. “He won’t kill you. He’s far more likely to kill the other members before he would _ever_ lay a single finger on you.” Jaehwan says quite confidently. “The soft spot we all have for you is pretty big so don’t worry so much next time this happens, Hakyeon won’t-”

        “Next time?” Sanghyuk asks incredulously. “You’re planning on doing this _again_?”

        “Well duh, your bed is comfy and I get to sleep with your arms around me if I do so of course I’m going to do this again.” The older says as if this is by far the most normal thing he could have responded with.

        Jaehwan shifts around on the bed some so that he’s lying right on top of Sanghyuk now, his thighs seamlessly falling into the gap between Sanghuk’s spread legs while his arms lie on top of the youngers chest, making it easy for him to rest his chin there and get a clear look at the maknae. If Sanghyuk didn’t know any better, he’d say that this looks an awfully lot like what a couple would do. Though Wonshik must not think so because he spares the two of them just a single glance from his bed across from the youngers before turning onto his side, back facing them, and promptly going right back to sleep.

        Sanghyuk groans, Jaehwan letting his full weight rest right on top of him now. “C’mon Hwan, I want to sleep in the comforts of my bed without waking up with pains all over.”

        “Hey, I could make it so you wake up with different pains.” The older says, a sultry smirk dancing across his lips as his eyes grow more hooded.

        “ _What_?”

        “What?”

        Eyeing his hyung with a confused expression, Sanghyuk scoffs. “Hyung, you are so weird.”

        Jaehwan cheekily grins at that. “Yup, that’s me. You’re weird hyung that loves you more than the others.”

        “I call some grade A bullshit on that one.” Wonshik grumbles from his bed, not bothering to turn over.

        Cue Jaehwan glaring at Wonshik’s back, looking very much like something Hongbin would do when he’s judging someone and judging them _hard_. “Oh, you think you love our Hyukie more than me?” Jaehwan asks as he places his head down back onto Sanghyuk’s chest, ear pressed right against where the youngers heart is beating.

        “Probably.” The other maknae line member says. “You just love him for his clothes.”

        “I do not.”

        “And his bed.”

        “Those are some lies, Kim Wonshik.”

        “I speak the truth and nothing but the truth, Lee Jaehwan.”

        Sanghyuk clears his throat. “Alright you two, I get it, I’m loved by my hyungs. No need to try and one up each other.”

        “But I want you to know that I love you most.” Jaehwan pouts, once again looking up at him while never making a move to get up off the maknae. “Aren’t I your favorite hyung?”

        “I don’t have a favorite hyung.” Sanghyuk scoffs. “How could I choose?”

        Absolutely beaming now, Jaehwan laughs happily to himself as he rests his head back down against the maknae’s chest, not caring much that Sanghyuk may or may not be slowly getting crushed by his weight. “So you do love us!”

        “You’re my hyungs so of course I do?”

        “Not the answer I was looking for but good enough for me.~” Jaehwan murmurs dreamily.

        Glancing over to Wonshik and seeing the older still lying on his side, Sanghyuk decides to just lie here on his bed with Jaehwan lying down on top of him, no longer particularly keen on the idea of trying to fight his hyung on getting out of _his_ bed. At this rate, the bed might as well be theirs so really, Sanghyuk is just going to have to get used to Jaehwan sneaking into his room late at night and more times than not stealing one of his shirts as he does so because something tells him this is only the beginning of many months to come of Lee Jaehwan stealing his bed and clothes and quite possibly his ice cream like the thief he is.

        Such is the life of the maknae.

        After some time, Jaehwan falls back asleep on top of Sanghyuk’s chest, Wonshik softly snoring in his own bed across from the maknae. Sanghyuk on the other hand just stares up at the ceiling, one arm placed over the dip in Jaehwan’s back while the other is placed behind his head. As much as he would hate to admit it, having Jaehwan sleep in his bed like this isn’t all that bad.

        It reminds him of the times back when VIXX had first debuted a little over six years ago now. They had this small dorm and they all slept on the floor of the back right room. It was cramped, Sanghyuk vividly remembers getting kicked in the head by Taekwoon at least every other night, but it was nice having everyone so close. Knowing that they were truly in this new hectic life together and that at the end of the day, they’d all be asleep in the same place. It was reassuring.

        Once they moved out of the Jellyfish dorms, they had the option of all living apart from one another. Clearly that didn’t happen considering they now have a four bedroom apartment together as well as Wonshik’s studio that a couple of the members like to go and relax in when they need some space from the shared apartment. Though, even with them still technically living together, things feel different. Like they’ve grown apart just that smallest bit and Sanghyuk isn’t exactly fond of this feeling. So having Jaehwan seek him out and want to sleep in his bed and wear his clothes sort of restores some of that old feeling of unity, of reassurance and Sanghyuk likes that. He likes knowing that him and his hyungs are still close even if they are growing up into the fine young men everyone knows and loves today.

        Soft knocks on the bedroom door drag Sanghyuk out of his thoughts. With a click, the door opens and Hakyeon pops his head in, staring at Jaehwan for all of two seconds before focusing his attention on the youngest. “Breakfast is ready, wake the two of them up for me please? Hongbin passed out in the shower again so I have to go grab him before he gives himself a cold or finally manages to drown himself.”

        “Sure hyung, go save bean.” Sanghyuk says, rubbing his hand up and down Jaehwan’s back in an attempt at waking the older.

        Hakyeon watches him for a moment, seemingly deep in thought before once again exiting the room, closing the door behind him as he goes.

        It takes a good ten minutes of convincing Jaehwan to get up before the older finally, _finally_ moves off of the younger and stands on the cold wood floor. Wonshik doesn’t even put up a fight when Sanghyuk shakes his shoulder lightly, waking up almost instantly and not having to be told twice that Taekwoon’s cooking is finally done. But Sanghyuk had to take a loss somewhere and that somewhere would be convincing Jaehwan to put on some pants or something because the older simply waved him off and walked right out of the bedroom wearing nothing but his underwear and Sanghuk’s oversized shirt that he stole last night. Thank the heavens that it’s one of his larger shirts though because the fabric goes down to cover the top halves of Jaehwan’s thighs as well as his boxers and Sanghyuk really doesn’t know what he would do if that shirt covered anything less than what it already does.

        “Isn’t that your shirt?” That’s the first thing Taekwoon says as he glances from Jaehwan to Sanghyuk, the two of them now sitting at the dining table while the second oldest begins plating the breakfast he made for them all.

        Sanghyuk shrugs his shoulders. “Long story short, yes, yes that is my shirt and no, I did not know he was wearing it until he stumbled out of my bedroom late last night only to steal my bed after eating my ice cream.”

        Slowly, Taekwoon nods. “Ah, I see.”

        Wonshik yawns as he takes a seat across from the maknae and the third eldest within their group, nearly missing the chair entirely since he wasn’t really paying much attention to where he was going in the first place. “Yeah why did you steal Hyuk’s bed last night anyways hyung?” He asks, stifling yet another lion sized yawn with the back of his hand this time.

        Jaehwan shrugs some. “It’s nice being held and our Sanghyukie here is really good at cuddling. He also wears this nice cologne, I think it’s the one Hakyeon-hyung bought him forever ago, and now his clothes and bed smile like that and, I mean, _c’mon_ , you two understand where I’m coming from don’t you?” He asks, glancing between Taekwoon and Wonshik as if LR can save him from his random early morning ramblings.

        “I guess you have a bit of a point.” Taekwoon murmurs. “But does that really warrant you stealing his clothes?”

        “And his bed?” Wonshik tacks on.

        The third eldest laughs some at that. “It’s not like any of us said that we couldn’t crawl into other members beds and steal their clothes with their consent. Besides, it was only a matter of time before one of you did it so I went ahead and took the initiative.~” Jaehwan says smugly, leaning over to the side so he can rest his head on Sanghyuk’s shoulder, the younger just calmly drinking one of Hakyeon's banana milks that Taekwoon had given him only a few moments ago.

        Hongbin scoffs, walking over to the dining table fully dressed in sweatpants and a random tank top with a towel draped over his shoulders so he doesn’t go dripping water everywhere, his hair still obviously wet. “Just because we all had enough self-control to not go stealing our Hyukies clothes and whatnot doesn’t mean you had to be the first to go and do it.”

        Hakyeon nods as he comes up behind the second youngest. "Honestly Jaehwan, you don't know how to restrain yourself."

        Jaehwan snuggles up closer to Sanghyuk, Wonshik’s eyes narrowing some in the process which the maknae easily misses. “I’m just doing what you all wish you could have been doing for years now.”

        Honestly, at this point Sanghyuk isn’t paying much to any attention to the conversation taking place. He’s learned over his time as VIXX’s resident maknae that Jaehwan likes to bicker and antagonize the other members and half the time it doesn’t concern him so he more or less tunes his hyung out. Now if only he hadn’t had zoned out during one of the few conversations that are revolving around himself.

        And see this, my dear readers, is why Han Sanghyuk is truly an oblivious maknae.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay but is it sad that I can actually see Jaehwan acting like this? Or maybe it's just my fangirl mind going haywire I dunno. Either way this happened and thank you for reading my crazy imagination! <3


	3. one weird hyung

       A few days go by and, unsurprisingly, Jaehwan has yet to leave Sanghyuk’s room. Every Night without fail, the older tiptoes his way in, nearly trips over the ever growing piles of clothes that litter the floor, and somehow saves himself just in time to crawl into Sanghyuk’s bed. The younger expects it at this point. It’s such a normal thing now Sanghyuk instinctively shifts over closer to the wall when he hears the door to his and Wonshik’s room open just so Jaehwan has enough room to lie down and not kick the hell out of his shins (because he did that for the first two nights repeatedly until Sanghyuk finally moved).

       Wonshik and Hongbin have asked Sanghyuk a number of times over the last few days if he minds Jaehwan sleeping with him and he just shrugs them off. Jaehwan deciding to sleep in his bed and to wear his shirts and refuse to wear pants all while repeatedly stealing his late night bowls of ice cream isn’t the most annoying thing to happen in this apartment and really, Jaehwan isn’t that annoying to begin with. Sure, Sanghyuk will admit it does take a little bit of time to adjust to Jaehwan’s affectionate and touchy personality, but it could always be worse. He could be stuck sleeping with Hakyeon every night and that by far would be a much worse sleeping arrangement than dealing with everything Jaehwan has been throwing at him as of recently.

       No seriously, Hakyeon is an absolute _nightmare_ for Sanghyuk to sleep with. Hakyeon holds him hostage in the middle of the night and won’t let him go all while cuddling him to death in his sleep! It’s truly amazing how Taekwoon and Hakyeon shared a bed for so long. Sanghyuk doesn’t know how Taekwoon did it… 

       Maybe that’s why Taekwoon really didn’t like Hakyeon back before debut. Probably all because he was held hostage at night. It would explain a lot actually. Maybe Sanghyuk will even ask his second oldest hyung about it sometime. Though, as of right now, he has more pressing matters to attend to- like figuring out what the hell Hongbin did with his cologne again.

       This is the fifth time this month that Sanghyuk’s cologne has _magically_ gone missing and nearly every time it disappears, Hongbin is usually at fault. Sanghyuk for the life of him can’t figure out what that man is even doing with his cologne. He just steals it for a few days and will eventually return it when Sanghyuk is out of the apartment doing something. And usually Sanghyuk would let Hongbin have his fun stealing his things for a couple days here and there, but they have a red carpet event later tonight for some movie premier and Sanghyuk wants to smell good damnit. 

       “Hyung,” Sanghyuk calls out to Wonshik who’s currently lying down on the couch, watching some rerun of an old _Running Man_ episode, “do you know what Bean-hyung did with my cologne again?”

       Wonshik slowly shifts his attention to the younger. “Beats me. Try searching his room.”

       Sanghyuk sighs. “I tried that.”

       “Is it the cologne Hakyeon got you? The one Jaehwan-hyung has been obsessed with for the last few weeks now?” The older asks with no signs of getting up from the couch to help the maknae look for his precious cologne.

       “Yeah, that’s the one.” Sanghyuk says with a nod of his head. “Have you seen him with it?”

       Chuckling to himself, Wonshik returns his attention to the TV. “You’re best bet this time around would be searching Taekwoon-hyung's things.”

       The young idol shakes his head some as he looks to Wonshik with knitted brows. “Taekwoonie-hyung?” He repeats. “Are you sure it wasn’t Hongbin that stole my cologne.”

       “Positive. Trust me, Taekwoon-hyung loves that cologne.” Wonshik says with a knowing smirk dancing across his lips.

       Slowly nodding his head, Sanghyuk begins walking down the hallway towards the furthest bedroom that belongs to the two eldest members of VIXX. “Alright, thanks Shik!” The younger calls from over his shoulder, his response being a singular grunt coming from the rapper dozing in and out of sleep on the couch.

       Out of all the times his cologne has been stolen, Taekwoon has only been the culprit once before and it was strictly by chance that Sanghyuk even found out about his hyungs thievery. Jaehwan had been complaining a few months back about not being able to find Sangyuk’s cologne and when the maknae couldn’t find it and neither could Hongbin, Taekwoon had no choice but to present the two of them with the cologne that most definitely was not his to take. Sanghyuk, to this day, still doesn’t know what Taekwoon was doing with _his_ cologne, but to his knowledge he never stole it again so it’s not like the reasoning behind it mattered all that much anyways. But if Wonshik is saying Taekwoon stole it again, then maybe he should try to figure out just what his hyung is doing with his cologne.

       Hey, he’s bored and needs something to keep him busy for an hour or two so playing detective will at least keep him from hopping on Overwatch which he’ll most definitely get triggered by not even ten minutes into his first competitive match.

       Knocking on the door at the very end of the hallway, Sanghyuk waits for an answer only to find the door already left open. He peers inside the room belonging to his two oldest hyungs, making sure neither of them are in here before quietly slipping inside, closing the door softly behind him just as Hongbin's loud yells for Jaehwan to return something of his rings out from the kitchen.

       Between all the members, Hakyeon and Taekwoon are probably the cleanest of them all and so it’s no surprise that their bedroom is actually rather clean and mess free. The complete opposite of Hongbin’s room that’s somehow worse than Sanghyuk and Wonshik’s shared one. Though what is rather surprising is the fact Sanghyuk’s cologne is sitting right there, clear as day atop Taekwoon’s dresser, the light streaming in from the window hitting it perfectly. Well would you look at that, Wonshik was right and Taekwoon really did steal his cologne.

       Curiosity getting the better of him, Sanghyuk may or may not wander around the one of a kind clean bedroom in search of what Taekwoon could have possibly sprayed with his cologne. There’s no clothes lying about so he couldn’t have done what Jaehwan does (Jaehwan has a problem with spraying his clothes with Sanghyuk’s cologne in case you were wondering…). Though if Taekwoon isn’t spraying clothes, then what exactly _is_ he spraying?

       Sanghyuk continues his search, even opening Hakyeon and Taekwoon’s shared closet to see if anything in there stands out because it smells like something of his. But there’s no luck there either. Something in this room was definitely sprayed with his cologne because Sanghyuk can just barely smell the lingering scent of it being sprayed at most a day or two ago, but nothing in particular sticks out. 

       Now a little more than dejected that his detective operation has failed, Sanghyuk plops himself down on Taekwoon’s bed. He takes a few last glances around the room before sighing. Why does Taekwoon have to be so backwards when compared to the other hyungs and not do the obvious things like spray his clothes with the cologne? That would make Detective Han Sanghyuk’s life a whole lot easier…

       Officially giving up now, Sanghyuk let’s his body fall sideways so that he’s now lying down partly on Taekwoon’s bed while his leg’s dangle off the edge still. The maknae’s eyes suddenly widen once his head hits Taekwoon’s pillow. That smell. It smells so familiar.

       _It smells like his cologne_.

       Sanghyuk immediately sits up and stares at the pillow with slightly widened eyes. Jung Taekwoon sprays his pillow with _his_ cologne. Now that is definitely something no normal hyung would do, but Taekwoon isn’t a normal hyung and Sanghyuk really should have expected him to do something like this.

       With his cologne in one hand and his hyung’s pillow in the other, Sanghyuk runs out of Taekwoon and Hakyeon’s room and back into the living room, holding both items up above his head triumphantly. He’s not a failure detective after all! “Wonshik! I figured it out!” He calls to the rapper who’s long been passed out on the couch now since the maknae first disappeared an hour ago.

       “What did you figure out Hyogie?” Hakyeon asks, him and Taekwoon just walking into the living room after a long morning of completing schedules and running some errands together.

       Taekwoon’s eyes flick from Sanghyuk’s and up to the two items he’s still holding up above his head like some trophy. “Is that my pillow?” He asks softly.

       Sanghyuk’s grin only widens as he lowers his arm some to point the pillow right at Taekwoon’s chest, Wonshik still sleeping through all of this. “Why yes it is. And you want to know what I’ve figured out Hakyeon-hyung?” The younger asks as he glances to their leader.

       Hakyeon chuckles some. “Please, enlighten us.”

       “Taekwoonie-hyung here stole my cologne sometime yesterday and you want to know what he did with it?”

       “What did he do with it Hyogie?”

       “He sprayed his pillow with it!” Sanghyuk says with a bright grin. “Now I know who the other culprit behind my cologne going missing is!”

       “Does that mean you can stop blaming me every time it does go missing?” Hongbin asks from the kitchen, no one even realizing he was still home till just now.

       Sanghyuk rolls his eyes, both of his arms now falling to rest at his sides. “No hyung, you still steal it the most so you’re forever going to be the first one to get blamed when it goes missing.”

       Hongbin doesn’t respond but Sanghyuk figures he’s slouching some in his chair right about now.

       A light blush dusts over Taekwoon’s cheeks. “Do you not want me doing that anymore..?” He asks at nothing above a whisper, Hakyeon watching this scene unfold with an amused expression as he leans against the couch Wonshik has yet to wake up from sleeping on.

       The maknae shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t care, I was just wondering who stole my cologne this time.”

       “So you don’t mind me using your cologne every week?” Taekwoon asks, his smile sheepish and almost embarrassed for being caught like this.

       “Nope. Knock yourself out with the stuff. Just return it after you use it because I was five seconds away from trashing Hongbin-hyung’s room before Wonshikie-hyung said you had it.” Sanghyuk says with a laugh, Hongbin's muffled ramblings sounding from the kitchen at the youngests words.

       Hakyeon shakes his head fondly. “You’re so cute Hyogie. Is this what you’ve been doing all morning?”

       Sanghyuk thinks for a moment before his shoulders slouch some because yeah, this is the only notable thing he’s done all morning and that is just sad even by his low standards… 

       “Oh Hyogie.” Hakyeon coos, closing the distance between the maknae and himself easily before pulling Sanghyuk into his warm embrace. “You’re so cute when you get all mopey.”

       The younger squirms some, attempting to be released from Hakyeon’s strong arms only to find that they tighten the more he tries to escape. For Hakyeon being smaller than himself, he sure is strong. “Hyung, let go of me.” Sanghyuk pleads lamely.

       Hakyeon squeezes him one last time before reluctantly letting him go. “Fine, I’ll play nice since it’s still pretty early. You’re acting rather goofy though Hyogie. Did you not go to sleep last night?”

       Jaehwan, making his first appearance all morning, walks right on through the living room and straight for the kitchen, calling out a lame “he stayed up to eat ice cream again” as he walks passed them all. Remind Sanghyuk to kick Jaehwan out of his bed later tonight and onto the cold, hard wood floor. That'll teach him to not sell out his " _precious maknae_ " again... 

       Shaking his head, Hakyeon grabs Sanghyuk’s wrist and begins dragging him back down the hallway that leads to their bedrooms. “No wonder you’re acting so out of it! We have that premier later tonight and you haven’t gone to bed yet? Are you trying to ruin what little bit of a sleep schedule you have left Han Sanghyuk?”

       The maknae grins to their leader before glancing over his shoulder to his other hyung. “Taekwoonie catch!” He calls out, tossing the older his pillow mere seconds before Hakyeon tugs him around the hallways corner.

       Taekwoon catches the pillow with ease, glancing down to it for a moment before looking back to the hallway that Sanghyuk has just been pulled into. And, since Hakyeon has successfully forced their precious maknae back into his and Wonshik’s bedroom to at least take a nap before it’s time for them to begin getting ready for tonight's movie premier, Sanghyuk misses the rare sight of Taekwoon smiling and hugging his pillow close to his chest, the faint smell of the youngers cologne lingering about in the air.

       Eventually Sanghyuk will catch on to his hyungs infatuation with him… Or at the very least we can hope he does for both his sake as well as for his poor hyungs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep in mind that I wrote this at 3-5 in the morning while jamming to Leo's new solo album so please ignore the fact that this chapter is a little more cracktastic than the previous two. The next chapter will most probably be more realistic lol but I couldn't help myself with this and I mean, c'mon, Taekwoon getting all flustered because something embarrassing that he does got found out is actually the cutest thing in the world :'))  
> Thanks for reading this and I hope everyone has a lovely morning/night <3 (also please support my boy Leo's first solo mini album titled [CANVAS]!)
> 
> (i'll probably edit this chapter again once i'm more awake so don't mind the typos if you happen to stumble across any :')))


	4. do i have to spell it out for you?

       “So Sanghyuk, why exactly do you stay up to eat ice cream every night?”

       The young idol glances up from his bowl of said ice cream and across the small table to Wonshik. “Ice cream tastes good?” He answers as more of a question. “That’s like me asking why you stay up late to compose every night.”

       Wonshik chuckles at that. “Those are two very different thing.”

       “But are they really?” Sanghyuk asks with a smirk before stuffing another spoon full of ice cream into his mouth. 

       The older can only shake his head, taking up his spoon and eating some of the ice cream as well. 

       By this point, it’s nearing three in the morning now. Wonshik had stayed back at his studio earlier instead of returning to the apartment and, as any good hyung would do, texted his lovely maknae to see if he wanted to come camp out here with him in order to escape the imminent danger of Hakyeon waking up only to find them both awake and then promptly murdering them. Their leader has made it his life goal to get everyone’s sleep schedules back on track before their next comeback and Sanghyuk was promised ice cream if he snuck out of the apartment so it was only natural that Sanghyuk would accept Wonshik’s offer of ice cream and freedom. 

       And that is why the two of them sit at the small dining table meant for probably two small individuals, not two large men whose knees keep knocking against one another’s under the wooden surface. Eodongie, Wonshik’s cute little French bulldog who he loves just as much as he loves music, happily jumps and paws at Sanghyuk’s legs, begging for attention as his owner and the young idol continue to eat their large bowl of ice cream. 

       Wonshik stabs his spoon into the ice cream, making it stand up straight as he leans back in his chair some. “How long do you think Jaehwan is going to keep crashing in our room?” He suddenly asks.

       Glancing up, Sanghyuk shrugs. “I don’t know. He seems pretty content with being close to me so, knowing Jaehwan-hyung, he’ll be staying with us indefinitely.”

       “Geez and here I was hoping he’d leave us alone for a bit.” The older muses. “Jaehwan’s had you all to himself for nearly a week now.”

       Sanghyuk scoffs at that. “C’mon hyung, it’s just Jaehwan. It’s not like he’s preventing you all from hanging out with me.”

       “Have you seen the way he glares at us if we get too close to you?”

       “That’s just him playing around.”

       Wonshik shakes his head some, taking another bite of their ice cream. “Jaehwan is as protective over you as he is over his figurine collection.”

       “Okay, we both know that’s a lie.” Sanghyuk says with a laugh. “And look hyung, you have me all to yourself right now and Jaehwan is nowhere in sight. I’m pretty sure if he was so protective over me he’d be trying to find out where I am right about now considering he’s been sharing my bed for the last week now.”

       As if on cue, Sanghyuk’s phone suddenly buzzes and lights up where it sits beside his arm on the small table. Both Wonshik and himself look to the phone only for the younger to sigh. Of course Jaehwan would text him right at this very moment, asking where he disappeared off to. _Of course_ this would happen right after Sanghyuk says their hyung would never do this exact thing.

       Jaehwan must truly be against him…

       Wonshik laughs as he nods his head at Sanghyuk’s phone. “Sure, Jaehwan is totally not trying to claim you as his.”

       Sanghyuk rolls his eyes. “You’re just trying to make something out of nothing hyung. This is how Jaehwan is.”

       “He’s only like this with you.”

       “So? Have you not seen the way he acts around you?”

       “How does he act around me?”

       “Oh _c’mon_ Wonshik, you can’t seriously be that blind and not notice the way you two act around each other.” Sanghyuk says with a deadpan expression. “I mean, you and him look at each other with these heart eyes all the time! And here you are trying to say Jaehwan favors me of all people.” The younger scoffs. “You just aren’t seeing the whole picture hyung.”

       Wonshik rolls his eyes. “Fine, let’s say you’re right about Jaehwan and he’s not completely trying to keep you all to himself, what about Taekwoon and Hakyeon and Hongbin then, hm?”

       Sanghyuk cocks his head to the side some questioningly as he eats another spoonful of their slowly melting ice cream, Eodongie losing interest in the two humans and already running to jump on the couch. “What about those hyungs?”

       “Hakyeon let’s you get away with everything.” Wonshik points out.

       “I’m the maknae.” Sanghyuk counters.

       The older laughs. “Then how do you explain the way Taekwoon literally gives you whatever you ask for? How he always tries to be around you and to wrap his arms around your waist? Or how he is fucking sleeping with a pillow that he sprayed with _your_ cologne?”

       “That’s just Taekwoon being affectionate.” Sanghyuk reasons, words muffled around his ice cream filled spoon that he refuses to take out of his mouth even though he’s seconds away from choking while he attempts to talk. “He’s gotten a lot more comfortable with us over the years.”

       “Jesus, okay fine, let’s go on to Hongbin then.” Wonshik says in slight disbelief. How in the world is their maknae so damn dense? Does he not understand what he’s hinting at right now? “You guys are always together and he’s always taking you out on these dates and you two stay up to talk all night long and even game together and you cannot seriously tell me that all of that is just what bestfriends do.”

       Sanghyuk laughs some at that. “But that _is_ what bestfriends do! They talk and hang out and have fun together. What’s so strange about that Wonshik-hyung?”

       “How in the actual hell- do I need to spell this out for you?” Wonshik asks, slowly beginning to grow increasingly frustrated with the fact Sanghyuk just doesn’t get what’s happening around him. Honestly, there’s no way someone can be this blind, right? Sanghyuk has to know that each of his hyungs treat him differently from how they treat each other. It’s too obvious for him not to notice.

       Just as Sanghyuk is about to respond, his phone suddenly begins ringing, their conversation ending almost instantly. Taking one good look at the caller ID, Sanghyuk nearly has a heart attack. 

       “Shit, Hakyeon’s calling?” Wonshik says as he finally returns to eating the now more than half melted ice cream. “You’re so dead.”

       The younger sighs as he picks up his phone. “This is the night I die hyung.” Sanghyuk says to the older before clicking the large green button on his phones screen, answering the call. “Hi Hakyeon-hyung.”

       “Where are you?” Hakyeon asks, getting straight to the point and sounding less than amused what with the time about to hit four in the morning now.

       Flinching some at the olders cold tone, Sanghyuk laughs nervously. “Hanging out with Wonshik-hyung at his studio.”

       Hakyeon sighs from his end of the line. “Come home now. You scared Jaehwan half to death and you know how I feel about you staying there overnight.”

       “Hyung, it’s just Wonshik’s place-”

       “I don’t care who that studio belongs to Han Sanghyuk, come back to the apartment, _now_.”

       With the older leaving no room for discussion, Sanghyuk reluctantly nods his head. “Alright, I’ll leave in a few minutes.”

       “Be careful on your way home.”

       “I will. Talk to you in a bit hyung.”

       Wonshik looks to their precious maknae with a guilty smile. “Sorry kid, I shouldn’t had asked you to come over when Hakyeon’s been watching you like a hawk. Should have guessed Jaehwan-hyung would wake him up when he noticed you were gone.”

       “Yeah, well, it’s fine. Not just your fault when I’m the one that actually snuck out.” Sanghyuk says with a small laugh. “Anyways, Hakyeon wants me back home so I gotta go.”

       As the younger gets up to walk back towards the front of the studio, Wonshik stands and follows after him. “Why does Hakyeon hate you staying here anyways? It would be safer for you to sleep here rather than walking all the way back to the apartment when it’s this late into the night.”

       “Something about him feeling better knowing I’m where he can easily check up on me. I guess he doesn’t like it when he can’t just open the door to our room and see me sleeping in my bed.” Sanghyuk mumbles.

       “Hakyeon never gets upset when I sleep over here.”

       “You’re not the maknae hyung.”

       Wonshik scoffs at that. “Yeah, let’s just also blame this on the fact you’re the maknae.”

       Sanghyuk waves his hyung off as he slips on his shoes. “Thanks for the ice cream hyung and get some sleep tonight. Hakyeon might rip into you in the morning when you come back and we both know dealing with Hakyeon while dead tired never ends well.”

       “True. See you tomorrow and go ahead and tell Hakyeon that this was my idea. It’ll save your ass some.” The older says with a small smile.

       Nodding, Sanghyuk smiles right back at Wonshik. “You’re giving me permission to sell you out just like that? What is this, my birthday?”

       “Yah, get out before I change my mind.” The rapper says as he gently pushes on Sanghyuk’s shoulder. 

       The maknae can’t help but laugh as he opens the door to Wonshik’s studio and then pushes his hands into his jacket pockets. “Night Shiki.”

       Leaning against the doorframe, Wonshik crosses his arms over his chest while shaking his head fondly, the younger already walking out onto the night streets of Seoul. “Good night Hyuk.”

       The walk back to VIXX’s apartment isn’t all that long, maybe half an hour at most? Sanghyuk doesn’t bother checking the time when he finally makes it back. The lights in the apartment are all mostly off with the exception of the main light in the kitchen. Quietly closing the front door and locking it behind himself, he toes off his shoes before making his way over to the kitchen.

       Sitting there at the dining table is none other than Hakyeon looking more than exhausted to say the least. The poor man has been going to bed earlier and earlier lately so he can be well rested for his countless meetings about their next comeback and really, he could do without waking up to Jaehwan panicking over where their precious maknae has gone at some ungodly hour. Sanghyuk can’t help but feel a little guilty when Hakyeon glances up and looks to him with this tired expression. “Welcome back.” The older speaks up.

       “Yeah, sorry about worrying you hyung.” Sanghyuk apologizes immediately, not wanting to make Hakyeon have to stay awake any longer than he has to. “Wonshik asked if I wanted to come over to his studio since I couldn’t sleep and-”

       Hakyeon raises a hand, cutting the younger off with ease. “It’s fine Hyogie, just next time tell at least one of us that you’re leaving alright? Leave a note or something.” He says as he stands up from his chair and approaches the younger idol. “We didn’t know where you went and I know that you’re all grown up now, but I can’t help but be concerned about you when you're not here.”

       Sanghyuk’s shoulders slouch some, the guilt only growing heavier by the second at the fact he's caused his hyung problems when he was just trying to sleep. “I’m sorry…”

       “Stop apologizing and hurry off to bed. You must be growing at least a little tired by now.” Hakyeon murmurs, going up on his tiptoes to place just the faintest of kisses to his maknae’s forehead. “Now go. I’ll be going to bed myself in a few minutes.”

       Blinking once, then twice, and then a third time just to be sure he didn't imagine what just happened, Sanghyuk nods slowly. “Yeah, um, okay. Goodnight hyung.”

       Hakyeon offers him a fatigued smile as he turns around to head off down the hallway where all their bedrooms lie. “Goodnight Hyogie.”

       Now a little more than confused, the young idol wanders into his room and is once again met with Jaehwan long passed out under the covers of his bed. Sanghyuk looks to his hyung before shaking his head some, closing the bedroom door behind himself.

       He didn’t have to pull his maknae card to escape that situation with Hakyeon. Honestly, he didn’t even really have to rat Wonshik out in the first place if he didn't want to. Hakyeon looked as though he had already forgiven him for going out without telling anyone before he even came home, no tactical persuasion necessary.

       “Weird,” Sanghyuk mutters under his breath, not understanding Hakyeon’s recent thought processes in the least bit. “That was definitely weirder than usual…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sanghyuk really does get away with a lot when it comes to Hakyeon lol sorry that this was a bit of a shorter chapter, but I hope you all liked it nonetheless. The next one should be longer and include more of the other members.~ Thanks for reading everyone and I hope you all have a lovely day/night <3 ily~


	5. once a snake, always a snake (in which han sanghyuk confuses himself )

      Sitting on the couch in the living room, Sanghyuk crosses one leg over the other while he scrolls away on his phone, checking his twitter feed that’s blown up with nothing but fan tweets. Rovix just announced that VIXX is to be having a comeback soon and Starlight's are absolutely freaking out. Some fans are spamming the members with countless tweets of support and excitement, others are beginning to come up with theories as to what their next concept could be, and then you have Sanghyuk’s favorite fans; the ones who dig up old photos of the members and begin making new memes out of them.

      Honestly, their Starlight's are amazing when it comes to making these memes. Sanghyuk gets a kick out of looking at what their fans make and has made it a point to send at least one meme a day into their group chat just to embarrass each of his hyungs. Taekwoon’s memes are by far his favorite though. Seeing that usually stoic and cool hyung being caught out at his weirdest moments is one of if not _the_ best thing to cheer Sanghyuk up on days that are a little more cloudy than sunny. Or are just something amusing to look at when he’s bored out of his mind, much like how he is now.

      Definitely a good way to cure boredom if you ask him.

      A couple of the members run through the living room to get to the bathroom, Jaehwan’s indecent squawks for Wonshik to get out of the shower filling the entirety of the apartment. Sanghyuk doesn’t even bother glancing up at the usual screams. They’re to be heading down to the company in a bit to have their first meeting about their comeback with their team which is exactly why everyone is currently fighting to get ready regardless of the fact they have two bathrooms, his hyungs refusing to acknowledge the other bathrooms existence since it doesn’t have the big mirror they all love so much.

      Sanghyuk himself was fortunate enough to wake up early and take his shower before anyone else was awake, before even Taekwoon who’s usually the one up the earliest so he can brew his coffee in peace. The young idol figured everyone would end up trying to kill each other over the bathroom this morning so he took it upon himself to get ready before all hell broke loose. Probably a good thing too because, from the sound of it, Jaehwan is mere seconds away from pulling Wonshik right out of that shower without a single damn as to what happens to him afterwards.

      Plopping down beside the maknae, Hongbin leans back into the soft couch and leans over some to see what Sanghyuk has been looking at for the last hour now. “You’re on Twitter?” The older asks.

      “Yeah, the fans just found out about our comeback and they’re having fun guessing what our next concept is going to be.” Sanghyuk says as he moves his phone more between them so that they can both see the barrage of never ending tweets. “My favorite is from this one guy who said he wants our comeback to be something straight out of a B.A.P music video similar to “ _Skydive_ ” and “ _One Shot_ ”.”

      Hongbin laughs some at that. “Who would be betraying who?”

      “Probably Jaehwan-hyung betraying the rest of us.” Sanghyuk says without a moment of hesitation, a playful grin tugging at the corners of his lips. “He’s a natural backstabber.”

      Jaehwan promptly whips his head out from the bathroom and narrows his eyes at the two maknae liners lounging on the couch. “I heard that, Han Sanghyuk.”

      “You know it’s true hyung. You rat any and every one of us out whenever you get the chance to, _especially_ if it's to save yourself from getting in trouble.” Sanghyuk says with a shrug of his shoulders. “Once a snake, always a snake.”

      Taekwoon stifles a laugh while walking through the living room to get to the kitchen, flicking his eyes to Sanghyuk for a fraction of a second as he does so before disappearing entirely from their sights. Jaehwan rolls his eyes after glaring at Taekwoon. “Har har, very funny. If any one of us is a snake, it would be Hongbin.”

      “Those are some fighting words right there.” Hongbin scoffs. “But you’re mistaken because I am no snake. I just silently judge from afar. There’s a difference.”

      Jaehwan waves the younger off. “Whatever, I know that I’m not a snake and that’s all that matters.” He says with a smug smile before disappearing back into the bathroom, once again yelling at Wonshik to “hurry up and get out of the damn shower”.

      Sanghyuk chuckles some to himself as Wonshik begins yelling back at their third eldest hyung. Jaehwan more than likely just reached in and turned the water all the way to it’s most freezing temperature, causing the rapper to finally snap. “That hyung is scary.”

      “Nah, he’s just dramatic.” Hongbin muses as he places his arm over the back of the couch just above Sanghyuk’s shoulders. “Anyways, this new arcade opened up a couple blocks away from here. Want to go check it out in a few days when we're free?”

      The maknae glances up from his phone to Hongbin. “Sure, as long as you’re paying for me to get in.”

      “Why can't you pay for yourself?”

      “It was your idea and I need to save my money.”

      “And what could you possibly be saving up money for?” Hongbin asks with a bored expression.

      Sanghyuk flashes him a bright smile. “Who do you think buys all the ice cream we have stocked up in this apartment?”

      Hongbin sighs, letting his arm fall from the back of the couch to wrap around the youngers broad shoulders. “Jesus Hyuk, you’re going to die from ice cream poisoning at the rate you’re eating that stuff.”

      “Don’t judge me and my sweet tooth. If Hakyeon-hyung hasn’t died from banana milk poisoning then I should be fine eating my ice cream.” Sanghyuk says with a sure nod of his head.

      Another two hours pass before Sanghyuk finds himself sitting inside of the large meeting room at their company with his hyungs. Surprisingly, for this meeting Hakyeon wanted him to sit near the center with himself, Taekwoon sitting on the other side of the maknae while the other three members sit on either side of the two oldest. Sanghyuk doesn't think anything of it, taking his seat and glancing around some to the familiar staff members filling up the other side of the large table.

      The makeup and stylist noonas offer him small smiles and Sanghyuk returns it. Two of their eight noonas have been with them from debut and, as any one of the VIXX members could tell you, they favor Sanghyuk out of all his hyungs. They’ve gotten to watch him grow up over these six years and have snuck him more snacks than he could count at this point. Needless to say Sanghyuk loves those two stylists in particular as if they were family. They might as well be family what with the way they chastise each of the members on not taking care of their hair and skin or how they reprimand them when they skip meals or get too little sleep. Honestly, if it wasn’t for all the lame jokes those two noonas crack when the eight of them are alone in the dressing room, Sanghyuk would swear they were their mothers.

      Hakyeon clears his throat. “Alright, so I know we’ve been talking a little bit here and there about the direction we want to take with this next album, but we’ve been focusing more on dates of when we’ll be releasing things and not really discussing the more artistic parts of this comeback.” The oldest says, looking to the staff members before glancing to his left and then to his right at the other members. “We really need to start thinking first of a concept. Anyone have any ideas?”

      “Our last comeback was “ _Shangri-La_ ”, flowers and birthstones were our focus.” Taekwoon speaks up softly. “Would it make sense to put a focus on something again like how we did then?”

      The staff members don’t chime in just yet, everyone listening to VIXX’s ideas with curious expressions. In the beginning, the staff controlled most everything about their comebacks; the concepts, the songs, the length of the album, _everything_ . Now it’s pretty much the opposite. The members themselves know what concepts they can perform best and are also much more in touch with the fans when it comes to what they want to see next and what they best respond to. With that being said, it’s no surprise that the members virtually run the show around here nowadays and Sanghyuk couldn’t be happier. As much as he liked the cuter concepts from their early debut days, he just can’t imagine them going back to “ _Rock Ur Body_ ” era without making complete fools out of themselves.

      They don’t need another dark concept like “ _Fantasy_ ”, but they can’t do something cute again like “ _Love Equation_ ” either…

      “I think focusing on something would be cool, but this time it should just be one thing.” Hongbin says after taking a moment to think. “And this time it should be something we can give to our fans. Starlights haven’t gotten that much stuff from us lately apart from some of Taekwoon-hyungs solo songs on YouTube so it would be cool if we could make them something to buy alongside the album.”

      Sanghyuk remains silent as he really wracks his brain for some sort of an idea. He agrees with Hongbin in that they really should treat their fans to something nice, but he isn’t sure what they would want. Probably something practical right? Something they could use and show to other fandoms how spoiled they are by their idols… But what could they do just that with?

      Something practical and yet something that could be considered a gift too. And it should be personal as well like something the members made together just for them. A unique item for their beloved Starlights.

      The first thing that comes to mind is something Sanghyuk wasn’t expecting- his cologne. His hyungs and himself always buy different colognes either for themselves or to give to their friends as gifts when they visit places and it’s always a nice memento of sorts to have and look back on and use. For their Starlights, they could do something similar to that. The maknae makes a mental note to thank Hongbin and Taekwoon for always stealing his cologne and giving him such a random but perfect idea…

      “Perfume.” Sanghyuk says, glancing up to the staff before looking to Hakyeon. “What if we went with perfume? We could be like scientists coming up with a new fragrance for this comeback.”

      Everyone is quiet for a moment as they ponder over this idea before his two favorite makeup and stylist noonas are nodding. “I like that idea.” One of them says, the other smiling. “Yeah, we could easily work with that.”

      “Giving perfumes to the fans would be a sweet thing to do.” Hakyeon agrees. “There are tons of different directions we can go with the title track as well if we use a fragrance of sorts as our concept.”

      The other members begin speaking up as well, each saying how good of an idea their maknae made before chiming in with their own takes on it, adding smaller ideas to his own as they brainstorm for the best way to go about things. Sanghyuk listens on with a warmth spreading through his chest because yeah, it’s _his_ idea that everyone likes and wants to roll with. It’s nice knowing his ideas won’t be overlooked since he’s the youngest and are actually rather well received when he does decide to add on to their conversations. That's more than what some maknaes of the younger bands can say…

      As he listens to the many comments and ideas being thrown out and discussed, Sanghyuk feels a hand land on his upper thigh and give it a light squeeze. He doesn’t have to glance downwards to know that it’s Hakyeon’s hand and he doesn’t bother swatting the older away either. Hakyeon has this way of always wanting to make sure the members know when he’s proud of them for either speaking up or doing something that was hard for them and so on. That’s just the way he is. Though when they’re in this type of setting where he can’t really take someone aside one on one to tell them that they’ve done good, Hakyeon settles with doing something physical whether that’s a pat on the back or, in Sanghyuk's case, a hand squeezing his thigh. Sanghyuk’s guess is that Hakyeon’s happy with him giving out an idea.

      The young idol glances to their leader who’s actively listening to the conversation that’s bouncing around from person to person at the large table, no signs of Hakyeon’s hand moving from where it’s still placed on his thigh. Sanghyuk gets lost in his thoughts after some time of just looking to the older member, no one really paying much attention to him anymore anyways.

      He can’t help but remember the conversation Wonshik and him had at the older's studio a few weeks ago. How the rapper kept _insisting_ that everyone treats him differently for a bigger reason than just the obvious ones. Though, for the life of him, Sanghyuk can’t figure out what other reason there could be. Is Hakyeon placing a hand on his thigh really that different from what he would do with the other members?

      For the rest of the meeting, Sanghyuk is quiet, stuck in his thoughts and only really snapping out of them for a few moments here and there when he’s asked for his opinion on something. Hakyeon squeezes his thigh a few more times, trying to grab his attention but to no avail. Sanghyuk is too busy trying to understand what Wonshik was hinting at to really focus on their meeting.

      Seriously, just what was Wonshik trying to get at..?

      Sanghyuk doesn’t know…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Han Sanghyuk's Current Status: Still oblivious to his hyungs feelings BUT he's beginning to question their actions just a little bit which is progress.~
> 
> Thanks so much for reading everyone! ily <3


	6. this is not a date

      “What are you doing?”

      Sanghyuk doesn’t bother moving for the sole fact that if he shifts even the slightest bit, he might fall. “I’m sitting, clearly.”

      Taekwoon looks at their maknae from where he stands just in front of the entrance to the hallway leading to their bedrooms. Sanghyuk is currently sitting on the couch upside down, his legs easily folding over the back of the couch while his head is mere centimeters away from touching the floor. The older momentarily wonders if maybe Sanghyuk’s neck might snap from the uncomfortable position he’s “ _sitting_ ” in, but quickly dismisses that thought considering he’s seen their maknae sleep in far more weird positions and will be just fine even if he does manage to fall off the couch.

      “So, how long have you been doing this..?” Taekwoon then asks, deciding to crouch down some in front of the young idol to better be at his level.

      “Fifteen minutes and twenty-four seconds.” Sanghyuk answers as he holds up his phone for his hyung to see albeit the screen is upside down and so it’s a little difficult to read the timer that’s running.

      Slowly nodding, Taekwoon stares at Sanghyuk with a blank expression. “How long do you intend to stay like this?” He then asks.

      The maknae thinks for a moment, letting his arms fall over his head to lie on the wood floor. “Until I can figure something out.

      “How does sitting upside down help you figure something out?”

      “I’m hopeful that by sitting upside down, I’ll be given a new perspective on this one thing Wonshik said.”

      “Changing the way you physically see the world won’t help you.” Taekwoon chuckles, reaching over with a single hand and poking the younger right in the center of his forehead. “Do you want to tell me what Wonshik said and see if I can help you understand him? I was stuck with him during our LR promotions twice now so I think I can offer at least some assistance.”

      Sanghyuk eyes his hyung skeptically. If Wonshik wouldn’t come right out and say what he was implying then why would Taekwoon? They could be working together for all he knows- hell, _all_ of his hyungs could be! What if they’re all keeping this big secret from him and have been for years now?

      …

      Okay maybe that’s just a little unrealistic, but Sanghyuk can’t help it. His hyungs have been acting weirder and weirder around him and Wonshik won’t explain a damn thing which only makes him even more skeptical! In due time, Sanghyuk will understand what everyone else has been hinting at, but sadly, that time is not right this second.

      Taekwoon offers his dongsaeng a small smile. “C’mon, I’m heading down to Wonshik’s studio to work on my solo album and could use the company.”

      Sanghyuk watches as Taekwoon stands up and walks passed the couch for the kitchen. It takes him a good two minutes to finally get up, actually falling off the couch as he does so. Groaning at the pain he just caused himself by slamming his back into the wood floor, Sanghyuk reluctantly pushes himself up to standing and promptly cracks his back some. Maybe sitting on the couch upside down wasn’t his best idea… And clearly it did nothing considering he’s still confused by what Wonshik said.

      After stumbling about for a moment, the blood that had accumulated in his head rushing back down to the rest of his large body, Sanghyuk makes his way into the kitchen where his hyung had disappeared off to. When he walks in, Taekwoon is leaning against the countertop beside the fridge with a mug of coffee cupped between the palms of his hands. “Hyung, weren’t we going to go to Wonshik-hyung’s studio?”

      The older shrugs. “I wasn’t sure how long you were going to sit upside down on the couch for.”

      “That’s a fair point.” Sanghyuk agrees, already approaching the older yet slightly shorter man. “So what exactly are you working on right now with your solo album?” The younger asks as he casually takes Taekwoon’s mug of coffee and takes a small sip before returning it.

      What? If Jaehwan can repeatedly steal his ice cream then clearly nothing is off limits in this apartment _including_ Taekwoon’s beloved coffee.

      “We’re finalizing my title track right now and I'm to be uploading one of my already finished songs to YouTube right after our comeback.” Taekwoon says without needing even a moment to think. Sometimes Sanghyuk wonders if he’s a robot with the way he can just regurgitate information without having to take a second to try and gather his thoughts.

      The younger smiles as he takes another small sip of Taekwoon’s coffee before handing the mug back to its original owner. “You already have everything figured out hyung.” Sanghyuk muses. “Do you have a date for your solo debut yet?”

      “Not yet. It’s still up for some debate since there’s no telling how long our comeback is going to take to prepare for.” The lead vocalist says before sighing. “I originally tried to get permission to have my solo debut and then our comeback, but they turned me down before I even got the full question out.”

      Sanghyuk’s eyebrows knit together in confusion some. “What why? I could get it if you weren’t that popular or something and they were wanting to use our comeback as a way to hype up your solo debut further and all but the fans love you. Your solo debut would probably give VIXX as a whole a bigger hype lead up.”

      Taekwoon chuckles some, smiling genuinely to the younger idol. “Thank you for saying that. It seems the company wants me to focus on our group performances and to be sure that won’t suffer before I truly start putting in time and effort into my solo debut.”

      “That’s dumb. You should have solo debuted at least two years ago and now they’re saying you have to wait even _longer_?” Sanghyuk scoffs as he crosses his arms over his chest like some upset child. “That’s just stupid.”

      “Not everything can go our way. I’m simply grateful that they’re allowing me to debut at all.”

      “They would have to be brain dead to not let you debut when you’re one of our two lead main vocals and a fan favorite.”

      Taekwoon can’t help but laugh at the youngers simplistic views. “Sanghyuk, you keep saying I’m a fan favorite. I think you’re mistaking myself with your popularity.”

      Having to do a double take, Sanghyuk looks to Taekwoon with a deadpan expression. “Hyung, compared to you and the rest of the band, I’m not a fan favorite. Even Hakyeon beats me in that popularity contest.”

      “Ah, well I guess you’re my favorite which is why I just assumed you must also be a fan favorite.” Taekwoon murmurs, taking one last sip of his coffee before turning to rinse out the now empty mug. “We should head down to Wonshik’s studio.” He says while sparing the younger man a fleeting glance. “You’re still coming with me aren’t you?”

      Sanghyuk nods. “Yeah, lemme just go and grab my phone. I think it fell between the couch cushions when I was sitting upside down.”

      Taekwoon hums in response, still rinsing and now quickly cleaning his favorite mug that his favorite maknae bought for him years ago.

      Entering the living room, Sanghyuk can’t help but get caught up some on the fact Taekwoon said that he’s his favorite. It’s not really that it’s something weird for his hyung to say. Taekwoon has said far weirder things in the last week alone. But, isn’t it just a little weird that Taekwoon as well as the rest of his hyungs keep saying that he’s their favorite..?

      Sure, Sanghyuk knows he’s the maknae and they have to love him because he’s their youngest. That’s just how that works. The youngest gets all the love and affection they could want in exchange for acting cutely and making a fool out of themselves when the other members need a scapegoat. That’s essentially the contract he signed way back when. But those stipulations only really apply when they’re relatively new to the whole kpop scene.

      As bands grow older, the oh so noticeable age gaps begin to matter less and less. Well, Sanghyuk shakes his head because no, they still matter, it’s just the age gaps are less noticeable. The other members slowly transition to treating him as more of an equal rather than a young kid to look after and protect and possibly make fun of but that’s beyond the point here. VIXX isn’t some newbie band anymore and so the other members shouldn’t still be so outwardly favoring him for the sake of keeping up appearances. There’s no point.

      …

      Sanghyuk sighs some to himself as he lifts up one of the couch cushions only to still not find his phone. His hyungs are weird. Why do they still favor him over one another anyways? He doesn’t do anything special.

      He doesn’t have some insane vocals. His dancing isn’t any better than the others. Though Sanghyuk will admit he can crack some pretty lame jokes that everyone finds absolutely hilarious when they’re half asleep after a few days of taxing schedules so clearly that must count for something if they all still like him the best.

      Five minutes at most pass before Sanghyuk is wandering back into the kitchen, his phone now in hand as well as his wallet. “Hyung, do you _have_ to go to Wonshik’s studio?” He asks with an innocent smile.

      Taekwoon is in the middle of drying off his hands when the younger asks his question. “Not necessarily. Why, is there somewhere else you’d rather go?’

      Sanghyuk gins at that. “Yeah. Let’s go out and get us some ice cream. You need to stop stressing over your album so much and live a little before you’re swamped for the next five to six months of non-stop promoting.”

      “You and your ice cream.” Taekwoon murmurs while shaking his head fondly. Though he never turns down the youngers request and Sanghyuk immediately takes that as a win for himself.

      The small ice cream shop near their apartment is usually open from early in the morning to late into the night meaning Sanghyuk comes here often at ungodly hours when any normal person would be asleep. And, when I say often, I mean _often_. The owner as well as over half the employees that work there know Sanghyuk by name even without having to know he’s some famous idol and that should say something.

      Smiling to the cool blonde girl behind the counter, Sanghyuk goes ahead and tells Taekwoon to go find them a seat near the back of the shop while he orders their ice cream. His treat. It takes some convincing but Taekwoon reluctantly let’s the younger pay after promising to take him out somewhere on another one of their free days as his repayment.

      “Yo, what’s up Hyuk.” Hyoyeon says from behind the counter, a cute pastel pink apron tied around her slim waist. Though it’s almost comical how the owner always puts her in this pastel pink apron when she could very well be the poster child for everything punk rock. Blonde messy hair, dark eye makeup, edgy clothes that look amazing on her- she just looks so cool and wearing that pink apron is like putting Wonshik in something cute and frilly. It's cute but weird at the same time. “Want your usual just times two?” She asks with a bored expression.

      Sanghyuk shakes his head. “Usual for me and a cookies and cream double scoop bowl with lots of caramel drenched on top for my hyung.”

      Hyoyeon nods the faintest bit as she inputs his order into the little computer. “Got it. And, since you’re on a date, I’ll throw in his ice cream for free.”

      “This isn’t a date.” Sanghyuk scoffs. “You wish it was though.”

      “Seeing a cute overgrown puppy with a man who looks as though he could kill someone is a stereotypical Korean drama couple in the making no matter how much I already fear for your safety.” She says, moving about to start getting his two orders of ice cream.

      Chuckling, Sanghyuk shakes his head. “You know I’m an idol.”

      “Duh, I figured that out after you were nearly mobbed to death by your fans.”

      “Yeah, well he’s one of our two lead vocalists.”

      Hyoyeon flicks her eyes over to Taekwoon who’s scrolling away on his phone, far too focused to notice her curious glances. “Lead vocal huh? Why are you and him out on some ice cream date together then? I thought you kpop idols just faked being friends for the cameras.”

      “Jesus, do you think we all just live together in silence and refuse to acknowledge one another's existences when we're not in front of the cameras?”

      “Am I wrong?”

      Sanghyuk can’t help but laugh. “Yes, very wrong. All of us idols have to be close in order to work well together and not come off as fake to the fans. Probably helps that we’re all going through this hectic and chaotic life together. You kind of learn to just get along because your band members are all you really have for the next ten or so years. It helps that my members and I are actually close and really do like each other. We’re not faking our friendships.”

      The blonde girl cocks her head to the side some, nearly finished with the last ice cream order now. She probably would have been done far sooner if it wasn’t for their conversation, but it’s not like either of them mind the wait. “Oh. So that’s why you’re out on a friendship date with him? Because you’re _close_?”

      “This isn’t a date Hyoyeon.”

      “Yeah well, you always come here alone and now you have this hot man walking up in here with you and you just expect me to believe you when you say you aren’t dating?”

      “I came in here with Sungjae not even three weeks ago and you didn’t think I was dating him.” Sanghyuk points out.

      Hyoyeon scoffs at that, placing the two order of ice cream on the counter before taking Sanghyuk’s debit card from him. “Sungjae isn’t your type. Besides, he’s dating that Changsub guy or whatever.”

      Sanghyuk’s eyes widen at that. “He’s what?”

      “Oh whoops, I wasn’t supposed to tell you about that.” She says before laughing. “Hey, now you know that you’re not the only one hiding a boyfriend from the rest of the world.”

      “For the last time, I’m not dating Taekwoon.”

      “You keep telling yourself that Hyuk.”

      Rolling his eyes, Sanghyuk puts his debit card back in his wallet before grabbing the two bowls of ice cream. Hyoyeon cheekily waves to him as he walks away, obviously still convinced that him and Taekwoon are on a date even though this is very much _not a date_.

      He just wanted ice cream. How does Sanghyuk having a sweet tooth turn this into a date?

      Taekwoon places his phone down once the younger takes a seat across from him. “You and the cashier seem to be pretty close.” He notes, taking his bowl of ice cream and placing it in front of himself.

      “She’s usually the one that’s working when I come in here. But hyung, you won’t believe what she just told me.” Sanghyuk says before glancing around as if someone might be listening in on their conversation. “Sungjae and Changsub are dating.” He whispers.

      There’s a beat of silence before Taekwoon is nodding. “I know. They’ve been dating for a couple months now actually.”

      Sanghyuk stares at his hyung incredulously. “You mean to tell me my best friend has a boyfriend and didn’t tell me but _you_ knew already?”

      “All of us know actually.” Taekwoon murmurs, picking up his spoon and smearing the caramel over the cookies and cream ice cream a little more evenly. “We just assumed since you’re so close to Sungjae that you already knew…”

      A beat of silence passes before Sanghyuk is stuffing a large spoonful of ice cream into his mouth and quite depressively so might I add. His own best friend didn’t tell him he’s dating one of his band members and has been for a _couple of months_ now. How does one simply forget to tell your best friend about that? Are they not as close as he thought they were? Does Sungjae think he’d react badly to the news? Make fun of him?

      Sanghyuk might crack a few jokes here and there about it, but he’s happy for them. He'd never be mean about their relationship so why the actual hell has Sungjae kept this from him?

      Taekwoon is quiet as he eats his ice cream, looking silently to the younger idol. Sanghyuk is too deep in thought to particularly notice the slight frown dancing across his hyungs lips. It’s only when the older speaks up that he snaps out of his thoughts. “Do you not like them dating?”

      “What?” Sanghyuk asks around yet another spoonful of ice cream.

      Really looking at the maknae now, Taekwoon places his spoon back into his bowl of ice cream, not wanting to eat while having this conversation. “Their relationship. Are you uncomfortable with it because Sungjae is dating another one of his band members?”

      It’s almost comical the way Sanghyuk glances around because he can’t for the life of him understand why Taekwoon is getting on to him about this. Almost as if he’s accusing him of already not approving of his best friends relationship. He just wanted to eat some nice ice cream with his hyung damnit! Not have Taekwoon getting all serious and upset with him… This was supposed to be something nice for the two of them and now Sanghyuk isn’t so sure about the two of them being here at all what with the way Taekwoon looks seconds away from walking out.

      “I was just surprised is all, Taekwoon-hyung.” Sanghyuk says cautiously, not wanting to make his hyung leave. “Sungjae hasn’t said a thing to me about this and was just surprised that you guys all know about it and I don’t. We’re best friends and I didn’t know he’s dating someone… Wouldn’t you be surprised if Hakyeon-hyung was dating someone for months now and you were just finding out via a cashier you’re kind of friends with?”

      Taekwoon stays quiet for a moment. “But Hakyeon wouldn’t be dating anyone so I don’t have that fear.”

      “And how are you so sure?”

      “Because I know who he likes and he wouldn’t date anyone unless it was them.”

      Sanghyuk is still for just a fraction of a second before he’s slamming his hands onto the table and leaning over some because _holy hell_ , Hakyeon likes someone. Making a scene be damned, this entire ice cream outing is just full of surprises. “Wait wait _wait_ , you mean to tell _me_ that Hakyeon-hyung has a crush?”

      Taekwoon’s eyes widen. “How did this conversation switch from Sungjae and Changsub to Hakyeon?”

      The maknae waves him off. “That’s beside the point here hyung. Now tell me who Hakyeon likes.”

      “First tell me if you approve of Sungjae and Changsub’s relationship.” Taekwoon says as he finally begins once again eating his ice cream, the tense atmosphere that had surrounded them disappearing just like that.

      Sanghyuk rolls his eyes. “Of course I approve. If they’re happy then that’s all that matters. They’re not hurting anyone anyways, and their happiness comes first so if they’re fine dating then I support them.” He answers truthfully. “Now tell me who Hakyeon is crushing on.”

      “It’s not my place to say.”

      “But you just said-“

      Taekwoon shakes his head despite having a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “Hakyeon wouldn’t want me saying and it’s not my place to spread around who he likes. You’ll find out eventually so just give it time and live your life. You’re still young Sanghyuk, have some fun.”

      “And now this has turned into a life lesson.” Sanghyuk says with an exaggerated roll of his eyes only for Taekwoon to throw a balled up napkin at his face. “Yah! I just wanted to know who Hakyeon-hyung likes so I could hook him up with a phone number or something. No need to throw napkins, that’s assault. I’ll have Hyoyeon call the police on you if I have to.”

      “Sure you would.” Taekwoon scoffs. “And he already has his crushes number so no need to go on some witch hunt for it.”

      The younger cocks his head to the side some. “Really? Hakyeon already has their number and he’s _still_ single?”

      Taekwoon genuinely laughs at that. “Should he not be single?”

      “Well of course not!” Sanghyuk says with these large hand movements that nearly knocks his spoon right out of his bowl of ice cream but thankfully misses by mere centimeters. “Hakyeon, like all of you hyungs, is seriously such a great guy and whoever he likes should jump at the chance to date him. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to date any of you? Whoever his crush is must be _stupid_ to not notice him.”

      The older laughs even louder at that. “I wish I got this on video.” He says a little breathlessly.

      Sanghyuk’s brows knit together some in confusion. “What, why?”

      “Because no one is going to believe me when I tell them you said this.” Taekwoon muses. “And it’s going to be funny later on when you finally understand what Wonshik was saying and then you realize how blind you truly are.”

      “I get I’m dumb hyung, but you don’t have to go rubbing it in.” Sanghyuk says with a deadpan expression. “Also, can you finally explain to me what Wonshik’s cryptic words mean and did he tell you what he said? Because I know I haven’t talked to you about this yet…”

      Taekwoon’s smile softens. “Wonshik talks to me quite a bit about you so I just assumed he must have spoke to you about how we interact with you since that was the last topic we talked about.”

      Sanghyuk slowly nods. “Yeah, that’s right. He was saying that there’s some bigger reason other than me being the maknae as to why you all treat me the way you do and I don’t know what other reason there could be.”

      “Ah, I see. Well Sanghyuk, you’ll just have to wait to find out I guess.” The older says with a warm smile. “It wouldn’t be any fun for me to just give you the answer.”

      “You’ve betrayed me hyung.” The maknae says incredulously. “How could you and everyone else keep a secret from me?”

      Taekwoon chuckles. “You’re going to understand soon enough. Just wait a bit longer Sanghyuk and enjoy spending time with us. When the timing is right, you’ll be let in on our little secret.” He says honestly. “Promise. I’ll even be the one to tell you if you like.”

      Sanghyuk sighs, his shoulders slouching some in defeat because his worst fear has come true. His hyungs _are_ keeping a secret from him. “You guys are so evil.”

      “We’re doing this out of the love we have for you.”

      “You're all evil!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hyoyeon is literally my favorite Korean name and lowkey there might be an idol with that name but my Hyoyeon is definitely not the same as the idol (is there even an idol named Hyoyeon? I feel like there is but I'm a noob when it comes to girl groups apart from the few I follow so I wouldn't know lol whoops)
> 
> Anyways! Slowly Sanghyuk is getting seriously suspicious of everyone and oh snapples, he now knows momma Hakyeon has a lil crush on someone (still blind to Taekwoon's love for him tho ohmygosh) kljfdskl;akljfdkjal I'm living for my own content don't mind me xD And sidenote, ChangJae is my ult BTOB ship and I have no regrets with shamelessly shoving that ship into this fic <3
> 
> Thanks for reading loves! The next chapter should be coming out soon.~


	7. tactical persuasion is not manipulation

When Hongbin had originally asked Sanghyuk to go with him to the new arcade a couple of streets away from their apartment, Sanghyuk is pretty sure that  _ this _ wasn’t what he had in mind.

“Think they’ll have the really big jumbo crane machines?”

“Yah! I want a giant plushie!”

“As long as they have decent pizza I don’t care where we’re going.”

“We’re going to the arcade! I want to play one of the racing games.~”

Sanghyuk glances to the other maknae liner as they walk in front of all their hyungs, essentially leading the charge as the four older VIXX members talk and bicker behind them. “So, still happy to have asked me to go to the arcade with you?”

A beat of silence passes before Hongbin is looking to Sanghyuk with an obviously forced smile. “Of course I’m still hap-” Jaehwan’s random screech for Wonshik to give him all the tickets he manages to win cuts the older right off. Hongbin’s smile falls immediately and then he’s sighing. “Never mind. You should have said you were sick or something and then we could have snuck out when no one was paying attention.”

“If I pretended to be sick then everyone would be constantly checking up on me.” Sanghyuk scoffs.

“Oh true. Maybe we should have faked our deaths then…” Hongbin mutters thoughtfully as the six of them make their way down the late night streets of Seoul.

Earlier today they had yet another meeting with the company and their teams about VIXX’s next comeback. It’s been finalized that Sanghyuk’s idea for the focus to be on a perfume of sorts will be the theme and the other suggestion he threw out near the end of today’s meeting, about each of the members composing a song on the album, was taken with warm smiles. If Sanghyuk had to guess he’d say that everyone is definitely going to get the opportunity to throw in a track onto this new album and that’s  _ exciting _ . To work on songs and not just have inputs here and there, now that’s what he’s talking about!

If LR can compose their own songs and all, Sanghyuk wants to as well. And it’ll be fun to see what the members can come up with together as well as apart. He’s not sure if they’ll all be allowed to compose something solo or if they’ll work in pairs or what, but any creative freedom is better than none at all. 

This also most probably means long nights in Wonshik’s studio like a couple of kids having this grand sleepover and Sanghyuk is living for that hell to ensue. Something is going to be broken by the end of their “ _ sleepover _ ”, probably something of Wonshik’s to make it that much better. Needless to say Sanghyuk is excited for this next album.~

Jaehwan pushes passed the other members to squeeze himself between Sanghyuk and Hongbin, linking his arm with the maknae’s and hanging onto the younger with everything he has. “Sanghyukie! You’ll help me get a large plushie from the claw machine won’t you?”

The way the third eldest is looking up at him, batting his eyelashes with such an innocent smile gracing his lips, Sanghyuk can’t help but think he looks a whole awful lot like some girl trying to sweet talk her boyfriend into something more than what she’s asking for. For all he knows, Jaehwan might try to drag him off to some secluded area of the arcade and steal his money to just buy a large plushie without all the hassle of having to play and earn tickets for one. And, before you say that that’s too far fetched for the maknae to rationalize, you should know that the last time VIXX all went to an arcade together Jaehwan stole not only Taekwoon’s but also Hongbin’s wallets as well as their already won tickets and used it to buy himself this  _ enormous _ stuffed animal that he now has stashed away in his closet out of pure fear that someone might steal it. Nothing is above Lee Jaehwan and his determination to collect stuffed animals and plushies alike. 

Keeping this in mind, Sanghyuk looks back to the wide expanse of sidewalk just in front of them instead of looking any longer into his hyungs puppy eyes. “Hongbin wanted to play some of the shooter games with me hyung.” He lies easily.

“I did?” Hongbin pipes up.

Sanghyuk narrows his eyes some as he glances to Hongbin. “Yeah, remember..?”

Thankfully, by some sheer miracle Hongbin catches on to his little lie. “Oh yeah! They have that new  _ Terminator _ shooter that’s been popping up around at other arcades and I’ve been meaning to try it out with someone.”

Jaehwan’s hold on Sanghyuk’s arm only tightens. “But Sanghyukie! Don’t you want to help me?” He pouts.

“Get Wonshik to help. He’d be happy to, right hyung?” The maknae asks as he looks over his shoulder to the oldest of their maknae line.

Wonshik shrugs. “If you already said you’d play with Hongbin then I guess I can help Jaehwan-hyung.”

The third eldest visibly deflates some as he reluctantly releases his hold on Sanghyuk and slows to walk back in line with the older members. He’s clearly sad and so Sanghyuk makes a mental note to at least win his hyung  _ something _ before they leave the arcade. Hopefully with a gift, Jaehwan won’t be pouting all night or hold some grudge against him for the next few days…

He’s done that before too…

Throwing an arm around his shoulders, Hongbin easily pulls Sanghyuk to his side as they near the arcade. “I see Jaehwan is still trying to keep you all to himself.” He muses.

Sanghyuk opens the door for them and walks inside the air conditioned building, shrill screams of happy teenagers immediately filling their ears and it’s only just now Sanghyuk is realizing they’re all a bunch of twenty something year olds coming to an arcade to play like a bunch of children. Hah, and their fans think they’re manly and mature. “Jaehwan just wants to hang out since I’ve been busy with Taekwoon and my own things lately.”

Hongbin easily drags the maknae away from their main group, abandoning the other hyungs without ever once looking back. “You and Taekwoon have been going out a lot lately. What’s up with that?”

“He goes to Wonshik’s studio to work on his solo album and he says he could use the company. Gives me time to do my own composing and whatnot so I don’t mind tagging along every now and again.” Sanghyuk responds. If he listens closely, he can just barely make out Hakyeon’s calls for Taekwoon to return Jaehwan’s coins that are needed to play the games. 

“Wonshik’s studio huh?” Hongbin repeats. The two of them stop in front of a coin machine a good ways away from the arcades entrance, the older of the two already pulling out a wad of single bills to start feeding into the machine so they can get their own large amount of coins. “Are any of your compositions coming out well?”

Sanghyuk shrugs. “I like to think a song or two of mine sound alright. And then Taekwoon asks me to take a listen to one of his songs and I realize that I am actually shit at composing.”

“Oh c’mon, you can’t be that bad.”

“You need to come down to Shiki’s studio with us the next time we go and then you can listen for yourself.”

Hongbin scoffs. “Weren’t you the one that suggested we each work on the songs for this next album we’re putting out? What the hell are you going to do if your songs are horrible and Starlights get upset?”

The maknae thinks for a moment. “Well, I’ll just let Hakyeon take all the blame for letting me work on anything. He isn’t the leader for nothing.”

“You’re so evil.” Hongbin chuckles, the small plastic cup he grabbed from the stack of empty ones now filling up with a seemingly infinite amount of coins. “But true. Hakyeon’s the leader so we might as well use him as a scapegoat every once in a while.”

Sanghyuk grins at that. “See, now you’re embracing the evil maknae side I always knew you had.”

“Haven’t I tortured you enough over the years for you to know I’m just as evil as you are?”

“Okay fine, you’re finally being evil to our hyungs which is a welcomed change.”

The two of them continue their conversation as Hongbin proceeds to fill three small cups full of coins. Jaehwan runs passed them at some point with Taekwoon not far behind, the older trying to steal all of the other lead vocalists coins as payback for stealing his money the last time they came to an arcade. And, to no one’s surprise, Hakyeon and Wonshik end up splitting off to go play some of the time based arcade games to see if either of them can win some jackpots while they’re here. 

For the first few games, Hongbin drags Sanghyuk around playing all the shooters they can find. They vaguely hear Jaehwan’s far off cries mixed in with the laughter of rambunctious teenagers who surprisingly don’t recognize any of them as idols (amazing, I know). The two maknae liners cross paths with Wonshik and Hakyeon here and there, those two on the hunt for the next game to waste their shared coins on while Hongbin and Sanghyuk fight to see which one of them can get the higher scores by killing aliens and robots and whatever else they can put a bullet between the eyes of. It’s only after an hour passes that Taekwoon texts in their group chat.

_[Daeguni (name changed by Hakyeonie)]_

_Whoever earns the most amount of tickets gets to decide what we all collectively spend our tickets on. Any objections? No? Everyone fend for themselves._

Sanghyuk stares down at his phone before showing the screen to Hongbin. “I think Taekwoon-hyung just wants to make sure Jaehwan can’t get anything.” 

After reading the text, Hongbin laughs. “He’s still angry about Jaehwan stealing our wallets that one time.”

“I mean, I would be too.” Sanghyuk snickers. “But damn, hyung  _ really _ wants to make Jaehwan’s life hell today.”

“Payback is payback no matter how you look at it.” Hongbin says with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.

The maknae suddenly begins to grin as they pass by a memorization game with over a million tickets as it’s impossibly difficult to win jackpot. “Hey, should we try and be the winners..?”

Hongbin slows his pace down to a stop as he follows the youngers gaze. “What are we going to do with our tickets if we win?”

“I don’t know, neither of us have a clue as to what prizes they have up there. I just want to win so Wonshik and Hakyeon can’t.” Sanghyuk says honestly.

“Sounds good to me.” Hongbin agrees without a moment of hesitation. “Now let’s win this jackpot.”

The first hour they were there in the arcade was spent playing random shooter games while Taekwoon terrorizes Jaehwan. The second through to the fifth hours are spent with Hongbin and Sanghyuk religiously playing this one memorization game with an over a million ticket jackpot while the rest of their hyungs join in on the “ _ let’s-terrorize-Jaehwan _ ” game. Sanghyuk doesn’t even bother attempting to mess with the third eldest and instead focuses heavily on winning the jackpot to this damned memorization game. He isn’t sure what Hongbin and himself are going to use the tickets on, he isn’t sure if they’ll even use them. Taekwoon never said they  _ had _ to use the tickets to trade in for a toy or some other prize. He just said the person with the most tickets gets to decide what they do with all the tickets they’ve managed to win. That might mean trading them in, or that could mean holding on to them for later.~ Taekwoon should have put some sort of stipulation to his text but, what’s too late is simply too late.

It’s when Hongbin and Sanghyuk are down to their last three tries worth of coins that they begin to genuinely panic. Hakyeon and Wonshik passed them by a little while ago with far more tickets than what either of them have meaning if they don’t win this jackpot, they’re not going to win all of the tickets. There’s no possible way for them to catch up to the amount of tickets Wonshik and Hakyeon have with six coins to their names. It’s not possible. They’d need at least another hour and way more coins to have even a chance of catching up at this point.

At least Taekwoon has been too busy making Jaehwan’s life a living hell for either of those two to bother trying to win this little ticket game.

“Are you starting to get scared too?” Hongbin asks, putting in another two coins, four left remaining in their last plastic cup. 

Sanghyuk watches the colored lights flicker on and off in a pattern before quickly replicating it exactly. “We need to win hyung. We can’t get scared or else we’re never going to win the jackpot.” He says, focus placed solely on the machine now.

The two of them grow quiet again as Sanghyuk makes it to the second to last stage before the jackpot winning stage hits. Neither of them so much as breath as he plays. This is the most stress either of them have been under since debut and, if they don’t win, Sanghyuk doesn’t know what they’re going to do. He  _ needs _ to win these tickets for the sole fact of shoving it in all of his hyungs faces for keeping a secret from him. Without these tickets, he has no leverage over them and that’s exactly what he needs if he wants any sort of answers out of his hyungs. Honestly, the only reason he hasn’t been bothering Hongbin about the secret they’re keeping from him is because Hongbin used his own money to get them their play coins and it’s not like he can betray him just yet. He needed the coins… 

Another try passes and Sanghyuk can feel his hands beginning to grow clammy as he shoves in their final two coins. This is it. He needs to beat the jackpot stage this time and win for them to get over a million tickets and win this stupid game. And maybe, if he’s lucky, Sanghyuk can use these tickets against his hyungs.

What? Tactical persuasion comes in all forms; including bribery.

Hongbin’s breath hitches as Sanghyuk makes it to the jackpot stage for what feels like the hundredth time now. The hard part isn’t getting to the jackpot stage but rather beating it. If the maknae can just memorize this last set of colors that seem to never stop blinking, then they’ll have their jackpot and get to pick out whatever prize they want. He just needs to not mess this up… Easier said than done but hey, if Sanghyuk can believe in his maknae powers then so can we!

A couple of random teenagers and adults stop to watch as Sanghyuk gets to work inputting the colors in the correct order, already sixteen colors in with no signs of forgetting a single one. The young idol clicks the colors quickly as the onlookers watch with widened eyes. If he can get this, he’ll be the first person to  _ ever _ win the jackpot on this particular machine. But who cares about that when he can just get the tickets for bribery? That’s the most important thing for him and poor Hongbin doesn’t even know that he’s been used for his money.

With the last click of a suddenly glowing pink button, the lights on the machine begin going crazy and then the people around Sanghyuk and his hyung are clapping and cheering and it’s only then that he realizes that  _ he just won the jackpot _ . This is like something out of a movie or something! Sanghyuk will admit that he’s usually pretty lucky (the opposite of Taekwoon when it comes to arcades), but this is just insane even for him!

Hongbin grabs his shoulders and begins shaking him like no tomorrow. “Hyuk! Oh my gosh, you won us the jackpot!” He says with such a large smile Sanghyuk can’t help but smile back.

The maknae is speechless as the machine spews out countless tickets, Hongbin already on the floor and trying to fold the tickets so they don’t get all jumbled and tangled. He’s still in shock. After nearly four straight hours of only playing this one memorization game, he finally won. 

Looks like it’s some prime time for another round of tactical persuasion.

Ten minutes pass by of both Sanghyuk and Hongbin now grabbing arms full of tickets. One of the staff members is nice enough to grab them some bags to place all the tickets in. By the time the machine is done shooting out over a million tickets, Sanghyuk is amazed at the fact they’ve now filled up five bags to the brim with the small little paper rectangles. 

“We should probably go to the front now.” Sanghyuk says, the first thing he’s said since they won. “Hyungs might be waiting to beat us and I need to shove this in their faces.”

The other maknae liner doesn’t have to hear that twice for him to grab three bags of tickets and begins promptly walking to the front counter, Sanghyuk not far behind. The two of them have these large grins plastered to their faces and, thankfully, their four hyungs are already at the front counter waiting for them when they walk over. Needless to say they’re more than shocked by the sheer amount of tickets the two of them have.

“How the actual fuck did you two manage this?” Wonshik asks, grabbing a bag and peering inside to all the tickets. “We saw you guys not even half an hour ago with like, thirty tickets at best.”

Sanghyuk laughs happily as the poor cashier lady takes the bags of tickets and decides whether or not to scan all of these tickets or just tell the group of six idols that they can pick whatever they want since they most definitely have enough tickets combined to get any of their largest displayed prizes. “We won a jackpot.”

“A single jackpot?” Taekwoon then asks.

“Yup.” Hongbin answers, popping the ‘ _ p _ ’. “It was all Sanghyuk’s doing though so these are really his tickets.”

The maknae’s smile only widens as everyone’s eyes slowly shift back to him. “You heard that right, now cough up all of your tickets hyungs. The maknae is truly on top this time.” He says proudly.

Jaehwan laughs some at that. “Maknae on top, of who though?”

Hakyeon promptly smacks Jaehwan upside the back of the head for that one. “We’re in a public space Jaehwan, no inappropriate jokes.”

Wonshik snickers as he hands Sanghyuk the tickets him and Hakyeon managed to win in the last five hours. “Jaehwan should come with a nineteen-plus rating.”

Taekwoon silently nods in agreement.

After handing the cashier another three-hundred or so tickets, Sanghyuk turns back to look to his five hyungs before his eyes land on Hakyeon. “So hyung, is there anything you want?”

The oldest of their group widens his eyes as he glances between the other members. “Me? Why would you trade in the tickets for something I want?”

“Simple really.” Sanghyuk says with an innocent smile dancing across his lips. “Taekwoonie-hyung told me a few days ago how you have a crush on someone and, if you tell me who your crush is, then I’ll get you whatever you want.”

The five idols grow quiet as they just stare at their maknae, shocked at his boldness. And then they’re slowly turning their attention to Taekwoon who’s already holding his hands up some in defeat. “He cornered me into saying Hakyeon has a crush.”

Sanghyuk’s smile widens now that his plan is coming to fruition. “Or, if you’d rather not tell me who you like hyung, one of you tell me what this secret you’re all keeping from me is.”

“You’re evil.” Taekwoon murmurs, repeating the youngers words from their ice cream outing.

“I’m the maknae, would you expect anything less from me?” Sanghyuk asks as he leans back against the prize counter. “Now are one of you going to fess up or am I just going to have to give up all these tickets?”

Jaehwan’s eyes widen. “You wouldn’t just forfeit all of our tickets.” He says in disbelief.

Sanghyuk shrugs. “You never know what I might do. But if you tell me the secret, then I’ll get whatever you want me to get you Jaehwan-hyung.”

For a moment, the third eldest looks as though he might actually rat out the other members at the maknae’s promise of getting him whatever prize he asks for. Though after one fleeting glance to Wonshik, Jaehwan bites his tongue. “No deal Sanghyukie. We all promised not to tell you anything until later on when the timing is right.” Hakyeon nods in agreement with a proud smile. Who would have guessed that Jaehwan does have some self control.

With a sigh, Sanghyuk turns around to look up at the large wall of prizes. “Guess that just means I’m going to give up these tickets.” He says with mock sadness. 

Wonshik scoffs. “Stop trying to manipulate us and just buy something.”

“Tactical persuasion is  _ not _ manipulation, hyung.” Sanghyuk says defensively as he looks to the older from over his shoulder. “And you guys go wait outside, I might take a minute to decide on what I want.”

Hongbin is shaking his head at the audacity their maknae has to try and pull something on them like this as the five older members all begin making their way towards the front of the arcade. Sanghyuk watches them go for a moment before looking back to the prize wall. There really are tons of prizes to get… 

A good ten minutes pass by of Sanghyuk just pondering over what he should buy. They had cool games and plushies and some toys and just a little bit of everything that really, he was more overwhelmed by than anything. It was difficult choosing his prizes, but he eventually decided on what he wanted.

Jaehwan was the first to spot him as he walked out of the arcade. “Why do you have three bags?” The third oldest asks.

Sanghyuk smiles. “I got you guys some things.” He says, already digging around through the bags and pulling out different plushies for each of them. “Here, Taekwoon gets the pink shark.” He says as he hands the man the pastel pink shark. “Hakyeon gets the mushroom, Jaehwan gets the cat with a crown, Hongbin gets a poop emoji,  _ aaaand  _ Wonshik, you get the unicorn.”

After the maknae is done passing out his gifts, he looks to his hyungs with a small smile. The five of them look down at their plushies before glancing back up. Though Hakyeon seems to be the first to notice that Sanghyuk himself isn’t holding a plushie. “Did you not get yourself anything?” He asks.

The younger begins crumpling up the paper bags and moves to toss them out in the nearby trash can. “Nah. I’m happy getting to spend time with you guys so I didn’t even think about getting myself something until I spent all of the tickets getting your plushies.”

Jaehwan immediately rushes over and envelopes their maknae in a bone crushing hug. “Oh my gosh, that’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever done for us.”

“Hyung, cut it out.” Sanghyuk groans, trying to pry the third eldest off of him.

“How did five plushies waste up all of your tickets?” Wonshik then asks.

Sanghyuk looks to the rapper albeit a little awkwardly since Jaehwan is still trying to squeeze the life out of him. “Each of your plushies were the limited ones. Like Taekwoon-hyung’s shark usually comes in blue and not pink so it cost me another one-hundred-thousand tickets alone to get the pink one instead of the blue. The same for the other plushies you guys have.”

Hakyeon walks over and joins in on hugging their poor maknae. “You really do love us don’t you?” He asks, already wrapping his arms around the younger and squeezing somehow harder than Jaehwan.

Before Sanghyuk knows it, his other hyungs have come over to hug him as well. He’s essentially stuck in the middle of this large hug fest right there on the sidewalk and honestly, anyone walking by at this time of night must think they’re insane or drunk. “Guys, stop, I can’t breath.” The youngest chokes out.

“This is what you get for trying to manipulate us.” Wonshik scoffs.

“Tactical persuasion is not manipulation!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's have a round of applause for Sanghyuk trying to outsmart his hyungs and failing :') at least he was nice enough to get them some prizes lol
> 
> OH GUYS! I need advice ;-; I'm starting my first semester of college on the 27th and I'm about to buy my textbooks (used of course cuz I'm broke af), and I was wondering if I should bring my textbooks with me to the first few days of classes or just leave them at home? I really don't know what to do and my friends are just as confused as I am ;-; any tips for surviving college would be really helpful so please save my sorry excuse of a human life lol ily! <3


	8. you’re not dumb hyogie, just a little dense is all

     “So, you mean to tell me that you ship him with his band members?” Hyoyeon asks as she lazily twirls her spoon around her bowl of slowly melting ice cream.

     Sungjae nods. “You should see the way they act around him. They’re all whipped for him and he’s oblivious to that.” He says before promptly taking a large spoonful of his own ice cream into his mouth.

     Sanghyuk rolls his eyes as he too eats his ice cream. “Stop over exaggerating Jae.” He grumbles. “I still can’t believe you kept your relationship with Changsub a secret from me.”

“Okay, maybe I should have told you sooner rather than having Leo tell you, but can you blame me?” The slightly older idol says with a shrug of his shoulders. “I kind of liked having our relationship stay between him and I.”

     “Then how did Taekwoon-hyung and everyone else know?”

     “Changsub is shit at keeping secrets.”

     There’s a breath of silence that passes before Sanghyuk is laughing while leaning back in his chair at their small table just large enough for the three of them. “True, he’s that one friend you don’t tell anything to if you don’t want the rest of the world knowing about it as well.”

     The three of them continue their small conversation as the time nears nine o’clock at night. Sanghyuk had managed to escape some last minute meetings about their next comeback and so he decided that tonight would be as good of a time as any to drag Sungjae down here to Hyoyeon’s work and have a nice talk together. It’s been too long since the three of them came down here and it will probably be another long time before they can again once VIXX has their comeback. BTOB is beginning to talk about their own comeback so who knows when they’ll be able to come back down here next...

     “So about your hyungs, Hyoyeon here told me about yours and Leo’s ice cream date.” Sungjae says with this knowing shit-eating grin that Sanghyuk is seconds away from smacking right off his stupid face. “Care to tell us how that went down?”

     “Nothing happened you idiots. I wanted ice cream and Taekwoon wanted to hang out so I brought him down here so we could both enjoy some time away from our hectic idol lifestyles. There’s nothing scandalous about that.” Sanghyuk says matter-of-factly.

     Hyoyeon scoffs. “True, but the way he was looking at you with nothing other than pure adoration is anything _but_ platonic. And when you made him laugh,” the cashier shakes her head some, “I’ve never seen someone so in love before in my life and that’s saying something because I’m in a healthy and very loving long-distance relationship.”

     Sungjae looks to Hyoyeon with a small smile. “Oh yeah, you’re dating a Jrock star right?”

     “Heh, I wouldn’t call him a star just yet but yeah, I am. He’s currently on tour so we haven’t had time to really even call each other. I’m planning on hitching a flight over to Osaka soon though to surprise him.” The blond punk girl says with a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “His bandmates are helping me out.”

     “That’s nice,” Sungjae says before shifting his attention to Sanghyuk, “now learn from Hyoyeon and finally accept the fact that your hyungs love you dammit.”

     The youngest of their trio blinks once, then twice, and then a third time as he looks to Sungjae with a deadpan expression. “They do not. I’m pretty sure Jaehwan and Wonshik like each other, Hakyeon and Taekwoon are practically co-parenting the rest of the band, and I think Hongbin is into this model he met at some gaming event a little while ago so why the hell would any of them like me?”

     Sungjae sighs. “You can befriend other people and be hella close without having a romantic connection dipstick. The way your hyungs interact with each other and those around them are _very_ different to how they interact with you.”

     Hyoyeon nods some as she takes a small bite of her ice cream. “I’ve been watching fancams-”

     “You’ve been watching fancams of my band?”

     “Shush, I’ve been watching fancams and shipping videos and each of your band members seem to have the hots for you.”

     Sanghyuk shakes his head. “No they do not. If you’re so sure that they like me, why don’t you show me some of those videos you’ve been watching.”

     “You want evidence?” Hyoyeon asks with a small laugh. “I got pictures and videos already pulled up.” She then says, unlocking her phone and going straight to her YouTube app. “Who do you want to see loving you first? Ken? Leo? Maybe N? Or would you want Hongbin? Ravi even?”

     Sungjae laughs around a spoonful of ice cream, nearly spewing out the contents as Sanghyuk stares incredulously at the blonde girl sitting at their small table, the rest of the ice cream shop thankfully surprisingly empty at this time of night. “She’s been doing research so her and I could be on the same page in saying that your hyungs definitely love you.” Sungjae offers helpfully after managing to not choke on his ice cream.

     With his shoulders deflating some, Sanghyuk reluctantly holds his hand out. “Give me a Luck video.”

     “You even know your ship names?” Hyoyeon asks. “Unbelievable.” She murmurs, passing him her phone right after clicking on a video.”

     “Of course I know our ship names. I’ve seen Jaehwan reading enough fanfictions to know them by heart at this point.” Sanghyuk responds, his attention becoming fixated on the video playing on Hyoyeon’s phone within seconds of it starting.

     The video itself is one you can find anywhere on YouTube really. It’s nothing special when compared to other shipping videos, but Sanghyuk himself has never really taken the time to look at these types of videos before so it _is_ special to him. Sure, he knew they existed, though this is somehow different. Seeing how Taekwoon looks at him after he’s already turned away is eye opening. Their interactions are pretty playful and always seem to somehow look more intimate than something friends would normally share, something more romantic than he himself had ever noticed. Before Sanghyuk knows it, the video of him and Taekwoon is already coming to an end and the next video is being clicked on.

     About ten minutes goes by of both Sungjae and Hyoyeon showing Sanghyuk short videos of him and his hyungs, all of them consisting of moments he can remember well but at the same time feels as if he missed something obvious too. His memory isn’t the issue here, it’s his ability to see things for what they really are at face value. The way his hyungs are always so conscience of him and his needs and feelings and of his well-being as a whole. They’re always so tentative and wanting him to smile and be happy and they entertain him and stay close to keep him company or they tease him when they know he’s getting a little too depressed about hate comments or harsh criticisms or whatever is plaguing his thoughts at the time. His hyungs, each of them, they love him more than he’s ever noticed.

     Sanghyuk returns Hyoyeon’s phone to her as he just shakes his head and takes another bite of his ice cream. Sungjae takes it upon himself to kick his shin lightly under the table. “What’s going through your head, Hyuk?” He asks, no longer teasing but rather acting like the true best friend he is. “You look as though you’ve just had this epiphany and now you’re super confused.”

     “I mean, I am?” Sanghyuk murmurs, still staring down into his bowl of ice cream. “Holy fuck, my hyungs are in love with me.”

     All of those times that he thought they were just playing around, he never bothered to look back to whoever he was messing with to see their fleeting glances or their longing stares. He never bothered to notice all the times his hyungs put him first and not just because he’s the maknae but because he’s _him_. Just when did things change? When did they start falling in love with him? And is this right here the secret they’ve been keeping from him?

     “Oh my gosh, I think I’m Hakyeon’s crush.” Sanghyuk says as he looks up and glances between Hyoyeon and Sungjae with slightly widened eyes. “Taekwoon said Hakyeon has his crushes number already and that I didn’t need to go get it for him because _I am_ Hakyeon’s crush and of course he already has my number! No wonder none of them want to talk to me about their stupid secret or their love lives or whatever! This also explains why Jaehwan-hyung has been stealing my clothes and sleeping in my bed every night for the two months now…”

     Hyoyeon laughs some at that. “Ken sleeps in your bed and steals your clothes? What else do your bandmates do?”

     Sanghyuk chuckles to himself at how stupid he’s been. “Taekwoon-hyung sleeps with a pillow that he sprays with my cologne. Jaehwan is guilty of stealing my cologne as well. Wonshik is just always looking out for me and trying to keep Jaehwan from getting too clingy by literally dragging me off to his recording studio whenever we're both free. Hakyeon kisses my forehead at night and likes to always have a hand on me somewhere. And Hongbin tried to ask me out to this arcade date of sorts only for the rest of our hyungs to tag along. I'm starting to understand why he was a little upset when we first left the apartment.”

     Leaning back in his chair, Sungjae nods approvingly. “Looks like you’re finally starting to understand things Hyuk. I’m so proud of my best friend growing up.”

     “Oh shut up.” Sanghyuk says with a loud laugh. “At least I called you and Changsub liking each other before you knew it yourself.”

     “Ouch, he got you there didn’t he?” Hyoyeon murmurs as she begins scrolling through her phone some.

     Sungjae rolls his eyes. “He was probably one of the first to ship Changsub and I together so yeah, he did call it but that’s not nearly as bad as being blind to having five of the closest people in your life falling in love with you and you not noticing it for years now.”

     Sanghyuk holds a hand up to his chest right over his heart. “Those are some fighting words right there, Yook Sungjae.”

     “You started this battle, Han Sanghyuk.”

     “And I, Shin Hyoyeon, shall end this battle by saying you’re both dumb.”

     The two male idols look to the one girl before both scoffing at her. “Whatever. Shouldn’t you be manning the counter right about now anyways?” Sanghyuk asks as he begins eating the last of his ice cream.

     Hyoyeon’s ice cream at this point is fully melted since she barely ate any of it, too engrossed on her phone and the conversation at hand to have remembered to eat it. “I’m texting my boyfriend and watching Hyuk figure out his hyungs like him is more important than making sure the non-existent customers get great service.”

     Right as she finishes saying that, the bell just above the front door to the ice cream shops rings, signaling that someone has come in. Their attention shifts and Sanghyuk finds a newfound nervousness pooling in the pit of his stomach at seeing Hakyeon walking in. The last of the meetings probably ended not too long ago and usually Hakyeon would have went straight back to the apartment, not come down to some random little ice cream shop that Sanghyuk practically lives in nowadays.

     “I think this is our cue to peace out.” Sungjae says under his breath as he nudges Hyoyeon with his shoulder. “Come on, teach me how to work here so I have an excuse to watch Hyuk awkwardly deal with Hakyeon.”

     Hyoyeon simply nods with an innocent smile dancing across her lips as she grabs their bowls and immediately gets up, Sungjae following close behind as they gather their things. “You two can’t be serious about leaving me alone to deal with Hakyeon.” Sanghyuk says almost in disbelief even though he really should have expected this the second Hakyeon came walking into the ice cream shop.

     Sungjae doesn’t bother responding as he turns and greets Hakyeon. “Hey Hakyeon-hyung! Haven’t seen you in a while. How’s life been?”

     Hyoyeon pats Sanghyuk’s shoulder. “You’ll be fine. Don’t you like them back?”

     The younger never had a moment to respond for Hyoyeon is already walking away towards the front counter by the time he registers what her last question was. Does he like them back? Oh god, he’s never had to think about that before.

     Well, guess now is a better time than never to finally question how he feels about his hyungs, starting with the one right here by the name of Cha Hakyeon.

     As Sungjae talks a little with Hakyeon, catching up on a good couple of months of not really talking or seeing one another, Sanghyuk continues eating his melting ice cream as he truly ponders over his feelings towards that tan man who’s the leader of their boyband. Hakyeon is special to him, duh. There’s no denying that fact. But, does he love him back? Reciprocate his feelings?

     That’s kind of hard to answer isn’t it? Sanghyuk isn’t even sure if he knows what exactly it feels to be in love let alone if he returns those type of feelings for his hyungs. He’ll need to break something as complex as love down later when he can have some time to himself to really think instead of trying to rush through his thoughts like this. Nothing is going to get solved if he tries to figure everything out in a few short minutes. Though the butterflies suddenly fluttering about in his stomach look like a good sign that he might like Hakyeon back...

     Hakyeon takes the now open seat across from Sanghyuk and sits down, Sungjae and Hyoyeon both behind the front counter where all the ice cream is and watching on with these proud parent expressions that Sanghyuk never thought he’d be faced with apart from Hakyeon’s parenting ways. “Have you been here all evening Hyogie?” Hakyeon asks as he shifts some, crossing one leg over the other to get more comfortable in the chair while Sanghyuk takes another spoonful of his ice cream into his mouth.

     The older looks nice today. His outfit is simple, black dress pants paired with black dress shoes and a white button up shirt that has the first few buttons left undone, revealing a fair amount of collar bone and chest without overstepping any arbitrary boundaries. His tanned skin is glowing with the light amount of makeup he has on right now, hair styled to perfection. Hakyeon truly is handsome and no wonder Taekwoon started dying from laughing so hard when they were last here. Sanghyuk is the idiot who hasn’t jumped at the chance to date Hakyeon because he’s blind, so very blind to everything that involves himself.

     “Hyogie?” Hakyeon repeats, waving a hand in front of his face to grab his attention.

     Sanghyuk shakes his head some. “Sorry, lost in thought. And yeah I’ve been here all evening with Sungjae and Hyoyeon.” He finally manages to answer.

     Hakyeon hums as he places one of his elbows on the table and leans over some, his chin placed on the palm of his hand as he looks to Sanghyuk with a small smile. “What have the three of you been up to all this time?”

     “Just talking.” Sanghyuk mumbles with a shrug. “How’d the meetings go?”

     The older shrugs right back. “They went how meetings usually go. Wonshik talking with our producer on the direction of our title track and brainstorming over what demo tracks we should start pulling for consideration. Taekwoon spoke some about his solo album. I pushed for your idea of all of us working on the album which is still up for some debate, but looks like I might have helped you get your idea through to our teams. The makeup noonas are always on your side just like us so it shouldn’t be too hard to convince management.” Hakyeon pauses for a moment as he gathers his thoughts. “It would have been better if you were there with Wonshik, Taekwoon, and I. It was lonely without my little Hyogie there to keep me company.”

     “I’m not little anymore hyung, I tower over you.” The younger says with an added eye roll.

     Hakyeon’s smile softens. “You’ll always be our little Hyogie.”

     “You’re like a sickeningly sweet boyfriend I never asked for, stop that.”

     “Is me being sickeningly sweet really such a bad thing?” Hakyeon asks with a laugh. “You seem to like sweet things with the way you’re always eating ice cream as if that’s your life line.”

     “I don’t judge you and your banana milk addiction.” Sanghyuk says warningly. “Don’t fight me and my ice cream, hyung.”

     Chuckling, Hakyeon leans over a little more to get a closer look at Sanghyuk’s bowl of said ice cream. “Fine fine, I won’t say nothing about your ice cream addiction if you don’t say anything about my banana milk addiction. What flavor are you eating anyways?”

     Sanghyuk get’s a spoonful of his ice cream and hold it up for Hakyeon to taste. “Cookie dough with added caramel, want some?”

     “Sure.” Hakyeon murmurs, already eating the ice cream off of Sanghyuk’s spoon, the younger suddenly realizing that this is very much like something a couple would do. Feeding each other that is.

     Clearly Sungjae and Hyoyeon agree because the two of them are now having their own fangirl attacks behind the ice cream counter, Hyoyeon smiling proudly while Sungjae looks five seconds away from yelling at them to just kiss already. Bless everything holy in this world for Hakyeon sitting with his back facing those two nerds.

     As the older pulls back, Sanghyuk smiles some. “Good right?”

     Hakyeon nods. “Good.” He agrees as he covers his mouth with his hand, still trying to finish his spoonful of ice cream. “I think I understand why you’re always eating this stuff.”

     “It’s like Hongbin and his Overwatch addiction. It’s good. You just gotta give it a chance.”

     “I don’t think I’ll ever give Overwatch a chance.”

     “You’d probably suck at it anyways.” Sanghyuk snickers.”

     “Yah! I’m not bad at those types of games.” The older says with a pointed glare. Though the harsh look quickly disappears before he’s chuckling as well. “Then again, Hongbin is one of the best idol Overwatch players so I probably wouldn’t do very well when compared to him anyways.”

     Sanghyuk takes another bite of his ice cream, his brain only just barely registering that him and Hakyeon used the same spoon and this is practically an indirect kiss now (but really, they’ve done this so many times it’s not anything all that special). “You could probably hold your own once you learned the game. Maybe I’ll teach you how to be a Widow main so you can snipe people from across the map. That’ll be funny to see.”

     “I think I’d play more of the support heroes like that one woman with the wings. She’s cool. Keeps everyone alive. I’d want to keep everyone alive so I’ll probably learn how to play her.” Hakyeon says thoughtfully. “But you have to be the one to teach me.”

     “You want to be a Mercy main? Alright, I can teach you that.” Sanghyuk says with a small nod of his head. “I’ll ask Hongbin to hook us up with one of his alt-accounts and I can start teaching you the basics.”

     Hakyeon is positively beaming at that. “Really? You’re usually just playing with Hongbin so I didn’t think you’d want to play with me as well.”

     Sanghyuk leans back in his chair some, his bowl of ice cream now finished. “Bonding hyung. Besides, don’t you want to get closer to your crush?” The younger asks as he stands up with his bowl in hand, his hyung looking up at him with slightly widened eyes. Sanghyuk just smiles as he makes his way passed the older and over to the ice cream counter to return his now empty ice cream bowl.

     “Did you just say what I think you said?” Sungjae whispers. “You did not just call Hakyeon out on you being his crush.”

     “At least now I know for sure that I am.” Sanghyuk whispers back with a small, almost wicked smirk.

     Hyoyeon nods, her arms placed across her chest as she does so. “You’re doing well my son, now go win your hyungs hearts over and have your harem of perfect Korean drama male leads finally become your reality.”

     Sanghyuk scoffs at that. “Thanks for the support mom.” He murmurs before glancing over his shoulder to Hakyeon. “Hey hyung, I’m done here. You want anything before we head back to the apartment?”

     There’s a beat of silence where Hakyeon remains still in his seat and then he’s getting up and looking to Sanghyuk with a composed and bright smile as if he wasn't just called out on liking his maknae. “I’m fine. Taekwoon and I grabbed us some food right after our final meeting finished. Let’s head on home. It was nice meeting you Hyoyeon and see you around Sungjae.”

     The two behind the counter wave with innocent smiles like they haven’t been eavesdropping on the conversation going on between the two VIXX members as they exit the small ice cream shop together and disappear down the moonlit streets of Seoul.

     Hakyeon is silent as they walk side by side together, Sanghyuk unsure of how to proceed with a silent Hakyeon. His hyung being this quiet is more or less a rare thing and now he doesn’t know how to handle this side of Hakyeon. The Older only ever really gets quiet when he’s upset and Sanghyuk is pretty sure he didn’t upset Hakyeon so why is he so quiet? His hyung is weird…

     “Sanghyuk?” Hakyeon suddenly speaks up when they’re no more than two blocks away from the apartment now.

     The younger glances to his hyung with a curious expression. “Yeah?”

     “Did Taekwoon tell you who I like?” He asks softly. “He did, didn’t he?”

     “No, Sungjae and Hyoyeon helped me figure out what you and the other hyungs have been keeping from me.” Sanghyuk answers honestly. “C’mon, did you really think Taekwoon-hyung would sell you out just like that? You guys are too close for that to happen.”

     Hakyeon shakes his head some. “You’re right, but how did those two help you figure out that I like you?”

     Sanghyuk shrugs. “Videos, pointing things out, and I remembered what Taekwoon-hyung said when we were at the ice cream shop a little while ago; that I’d find it funny how blind I am to what Wonshik has been trying to tell me and what I’ve just been blind to in general. I mean, I haven’t noticed that any of you have liked me until just an hour ago and damn, I didn’t think I was _this_ oblivious to how people feel about me but I guess I am just dumb.”

     Hakyeon is quiet for a moment before soft chuckles slip past his lips, throwing an arm around Sanghyuk' s shoulders even though the younger is taller than him by a couple of inches. “You’re not dumb Hyogie, just a little dense is all.”

     “I’m not sure that’s all that much better, hyung…”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait on this chapter everyone! I made it longer to make up for the wait ;-; drivers ed courses are hell and I hate them more than I hate knowing school is starting back up soon lol
> 
> Anyways! Thanks so much for reading this chapter and THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO GAVE ME ADVICE ON TEXTBOOKS! It means a lot that so many of you gave me your advice and opinions for surviving college! I can't thank all of you enough ;-; you're all the best and I love each and every one of you <3 as my thanks, I made Sanghyukie here FINALLy see that his hyungs love him :'D don't worry, the fic won't be ending soon though~ I plan on writing well into the "trying-to-figure-out-how-to-make-this-relationship-work" faze and trust me, there will be some angst with plenty of fluff and light jealousy to fill our hearts with even more love for VIXX ^^
> 
> Seriously guys, thank you so much for everything and I hope you loved this chapter! I had a lot of fun writing it and oh yeah!!! There will be more appearences of Sungjae and Hyoyeon and probably all the other BTOB members and possibly a few appearances of the B.A.P members as well later on so keep on the look out for those fun chapters.~ Love you all, bye! <3

**Author's Note:**

> I have no regrets for what my brain comes up with~  
> Thanks for reading this chapter and feel free to comment if ya want to! ily have a nice day/night <3


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